Mahler's symphony on TOP FM 'Music Klasik'

By S. Harmono

JAKARTA (JP): A new sound came to Jakarta radio on Oct. 1. Since then, the music of Bach, Beethoven, Handel and other great composers has been heard each evening from 6 p.m. until 12 midnight. These new sounds emanate from TOP FM's new programming service, Radio Klasik on 89.7 MHz.

In the development of Radio Klasik, TOP FM has worked in conjunction with U.S. classical music Radio Station WCLV in Cleveland, Ohio. WCLV is one of the top classical music stations in the U.S. It has won numerous national and international radio and music awards for its programming.

Last week's peak came on Tuesday with a recorded performance of Gustav Mahler's Third Symphony in D minor for contralto, women's and boys' choirs. The rendition was by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra (SSO), conducted by Edo de Waart, playing in a live concert at the Sydney Opera House in Aug. 1994.

Mahler's Third Symphony, this year exactly 100 years old, is perhaps not the most famous of the composer's nine symphonies (like Beethoven, Mahler completed only nine), but there are many enchanting moments in the work. Its six parts are entitled as follows: (1) Pan wakes up; (2) What the flowers of the meadow tell me; (3) What the animals of the wood tell me; (4) What man tells me; (5) What the angels tell me; and (6) What love tells me.

The SSO conveys the beautiful sounds very well. This is no mean feat because Mahler makes use of massive orchestral forces, including quadruple woodwind (four of each of the woodwind instruments), eight horns and a large chorus of brass and percussion. Mahler said: "With me, the bassoon, the bass tuba, the timpani must sing ... The term 'symphony' is, for me, with all the technical means at my disposal, the building of a world." Mahler has also enriched the Romantic symphony with all the melodic freedom of the German lied (song) and the expressive force of the voice.

Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) hailed from Bohemia -- then a part of Austria-Hungary and now the Czech Republic -- and spent many years as conductor in Vienna. A highly sensitive artist, Mahler was torn between his love for the marvels of nature - forests and bird songs - and the sufferings in the innermost depths of man. His music is an expression of both his inner torments and his spiritual impulses (towards God, nature, beauty and purity). His work has been called "the last farewell of modern man to the beautiful fading dream of Romanticism."

Mahler, himself an eminent conductor, was not alone in acquainting the public with his music at the beginning of this century. The Dutch conductor Willem Mengelberg, at the helm of the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra from 1895 to 1945, was important in propagating the then contemporary music. His successors, Eduard van Beinum and later Bernard Haitink, were also staunch Mahlerians. It is interesting to note that Edo de Waart, the current conductor of the SSO, was principal oboist with the Concertgebouw Orchestra in the 1960s before he became famous as an international conductor when he was barely 20. De Waart, now about 50, seems to have brought the Mahler tradition from Amsterdam to Sydney.

Another exponent of Mahler's music in the first half of the century was German conductor Bruno Walter, who often conducted in the USA. Versatile American musician James Levine is also well- versed in Mahler.

Indian conductor Zubin Mehta, in part due to his musical experience in Vienna, also played Mahler in the U.S. He even played Mahler's Fifth Symphony with the New York Philharmonic in Jakarta! I regret to this day that I did not attend that exceptional concert in September 1984. I had the tickets, but I was held up in Britain. At that time the Promenade Concerts at the Royal Albert Hall in London were offering Mahler's Second Symphony played by the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Seiji Ozawa, with Jessye Norman as the soprano soloist.

The tickets were sold out, even for the pit. A scalper offered me a ticket for five times the box office price. I was not sure that it was a valid ticket. I should have taken the risk. To this day I regret missing the opportunity to hear what was, arguably, America's best orchestra and Norman's booming voice.

Hearing Mahler in a concert hall is a rare occasion. I blew the two chances I had in 1984. Never before and never since have I come across Mahler's music performed live. The radio too seldom broadcasts Mahler symphonies because of their length.

It was gratifying to know that the one-week old TOP FM Musik Klasik aired Mahler's Third Symphony lasting nearly 2 hours, not from a studio-recording, but from a live concert! The final movement (adagio), a confession of love, is utterly moving in the interpretation of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra under Edo de Waart.