Gustav Mahler’s 3rd Symphony by the Municipal Symphony Orchestra of Athens at the Megaron

Athens, 27 September. The organization of the Athens Symphony Orchestra succeeds to present one of the longest Symphonies of Classical Music repertories Mahler’s 3rd.

Maestro Loukas Karitinos directed the large orchestra and Choir of City of Athens in his personal way of conducting. The rhythmical parts were more accurate in Mahler’s mood. The slower parts were less succeeded in “Ad libitum” atmosphere that made the work inaccessible for the audiences. Many people were gone before the end among with a blond haired girl from the choir.

Also at the program was missing the composer’s info.

Mahler’s music especially in this Symphony is very complex composition, he mixes many light motives and rhythms in a direction to demolished them in agony and transform them to tragic forms with sadness. Those alterations keeps the interest of the audiences until the end of his long works. As a fine conductor Mahler love the orchestra and orchestra players love to play his works. At the 3rd Symphony the introduction, Kräftig entschieden (Strong and decisive) [D minor to F major], by the French Horns is very characteristic in sound color and effect, and the

effects goes with the dramatic solo of the Trombone. The second part is in Tempo di Menuetto (In the tempo of a minuet) [A major]. The third part is in Comodo (Scherzando) (Comfortably, like a scherzo) [C minor to C major]. The fourth part is deeply beautiful in Sehr langsam—Misterioso (Very slowly, mysteriously) is a song and was performed by mezzo Margarita Sygeniotou, her voice is velvet with a worm vibrato. The text is from Friedrich Nietzsche's Also sprach Zarathustra: the "Midnight Song" O Man! Take heed! What says the deep midnight? "I slept, I slept—, from a deep dream have I awoken:— the world is deep, and deeper than the day has thought. Deep is its pain—, joy—deeper still than heartache. Pain says: Pass away! But all joy seeks eternity—, —seeks deep, deep eternity!"

The fifth part "Es sungen drei Engel", is one of Mahler's Des Knaben Wunderhorn songs.

I don’t understand why the composer used the choir for such a small part in this extensive work. The last part of this symphony is a masterpiece, “Langsam—Ruhevoll—Empfunden (Slowly, tranquil, deeply felt) [D major]”. The entrance of the celli is a magical moment of classical music

symphonic works. A deep romanticism melody passes from celli to flute and to the brass section,

and all the orchestra goes to a sad grandioso crescendo. As with each of his first four symphonies, Mahler originally provided a program of sorts to explain the narrative of the piece. In the third symphony this took the form of titles for each movement: 1. "Pan Awakes, Summer Marches In", 2. "What the Flowers on the Meadow Tell Me", 3. "What the Animals in the Forest Tell Me",

4. "What Man Tells Me", 5."What the Angels Tell Me", 6."What Love Tells Me".

Gustav Mahler (7 July 1860 – 18 May 1911) was a late-Romantic Jewish- Austrian composer and one of the leading conductors of his generation. As a composer, he acted as a bridge between the 19th century Austro-German tradition and the modernism of the early 20th century. While in his lifetime his status as a conductor was established beyond question, his own music gained wide popularity only after periods of relative neglect which included a ban on its performance in much of Europe during the Nazi era. After 1945 the music was discovered and championed by a new generation of listeners; Mahler then became one of the most frequently performed and recorded of all composers, a position he has sustained into the 21st century.

It was with pleasure to see the City of Athens to undertake this effort to present this difficult work. Hope to see more in future times. Bravo to Artistic Director of the Municipal Symphony Orchestra of Athens Georgios Katsaros that accepted the proposal of Professor Apostolos Kostios to present the Third Symphony of Mahler to honor the memory of Maestro Dimitris Mitropoulos. It is remarkable that Mitropoulos dies by heart attack at the podium of La Scala di Milano dooring the rehearsals of the 3rd Symphony of Gustav Mahler, and in this Symphony Mahler had started to input in his music the death signals facing his own mortality by a heart attack.

(Pictures: City of Athens Symphony Orchestra and Choir, composer Panagiotis Karousos, Poet Demetris Iatropoulos, painter Katerina Iatropoulos and Director of National Opera of Greece Nikos Mourkogiannis, Panayoti Karousos at the Megaron, Gustav Mahler with his wife, Alma, and Dimitris Mitropoulos)