Klarinet Archive - Posting 000963.txt from 1998/07

From: "Diane Karius, Ph.D." <dikarius@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: [kl] MAHLER WAS A BIG CONDUCTOR ALSO!
Date: Fri, 24 Jul 1998 13:38:09 -0400

> On Thu, 23 Jul 1998, avrahm galper wrote:
>
> > Sergei Rachmaninoff, the famous Russian musician, relates in his
> > "Recollections" that he once heard Mahler in New York in 1909 conducting
> > Berlioz's "Life of an Artist" and that in the fourth movement (March to
> > the Scaffold) he obtained a crescendo of the brass instruments 'such as
> > I have never heard before. The very windows shook, the very walls
> > seemed to vibrate'.
To which Ed Lacy responded:
>... However, it seems to me that getting a crescendo from the
> brass would be about the least of any conductor's problems. Now, if
> Rachmaninoff had said that Mahler had achieved a pianissimo in the brass,
> that would be something to write home about.
>
It can be argued that since Mahler _obtained_ a crescendo, it is
clear that the members of the brass section were not playing as loud
as they possibly could going into the crescendo, which many would
construe as a significant achievement :-)!

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