Bernstein talks about Mahler's 9th

In 1973 Bernstein gave six talks in Harvard. This is a footage from his 5th Lecture, titled "the 20th century Crysis". In the beginning, he talked about the work of Arnold Schoenberg, and how music has come to a landmark and ambiguous point with matters regarding tonality,melody and musical structure (namely "the 20th century Crysis").

This footage begins as a musical excerpt that has been used, the Alban Berg's violin concerto showing a beautiful work of Schoenberg's new composing method ("serialism"), ends.
Then, Bernstein takes us a trip into the world of Gustav Mahler and ,in particular, his last complete work. He shows us an aspect of Mahler's importance in music from 1908 till now, and how great art can, as always had, turn us into more completed human beings.

It is a fact, that Maestro Bernstein had to memorize all six talks.

In my opinion, he was a great spiritual man with a wide-ranged knowledge, and he is truly missed nowadays. He was a music lover and he dedicated his life in conducting, composing and teaching about it, giving us a better understanding of great achievements of the human spirit, and thus making our view of the world more complete and spherical.

• Category

  • Music

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  • Standard YouTube License