Gustav Mahler - Symphony No. 1 in D Major, IV. Stürmisch bewegt – Energisch
performance by SooChow University Orchestra (not sure of the conductor’s name but is possibly Paul Chang)
(Also, the video and especially audio on this clip are fantastic. The piece is performed so competently, with moments of real innovation. They add a lot of refreshing character to it. Everyone in this orchestra seems so young! Which makes me envious.)
Probably the most defining piece for my personal relationship with classical music. It wasn’t until Mahler that I first really started to appreciate classical music in both a formal and obsessive sense that’s grown into what it is for me today.
I was either fourteen or fifteen at the time. I had to write in to a radio station to find out what it was - I listened to classical radio, with headphones, when I slept at boarding school (I was a dork). This song, understandably, woke me in the middle of the night, and it was so stirring, almost disturbing, that it’s stuck with me since. I wouldn’t find out until later how famous the piece actually was even though, to this day, Mahler’s 1st is still met with very mixed opinions. You can’t deny the power of this finale though (whether you think it’s tacky or inspired is another story).
Other classical music moments that have impacted greatly on my life:
- the 1812 Overture, my first time performing with an orchestra and in the Auckland Town Hall (renowned for having some of the best acoustics in the world), I was 11
- Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings (I was about 10-11 when I first heard it, and technically that’s the first piece of classical music I really loved, but I had no real, formal understanding of music at the time)
- Hearing a live performance of Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini (truly life-changing despite being only a year ago)
This list wouldn’t be complete without mention of Fantasia. I think there was just no chance of me turning out any other way than how I have, because of that film, which was brainwashing me from about the age of 3 onwards (about the same time I started playing with pots and pans). Music was really written in the cards for me. I’ve spent many years fighting that, which has been pretty severely detrimental to my technique at times. But I’m still tinkling away.
