Mahler's Fourth: A Wicked New Look
January 19, 2022
Mahler 4 presages the emergence of jazz: the music riffs on itself throughout, replacing “classical” repetition of themes with constant variation. It feeds upon folk and dance tunes and rollicks with inner conflicts and contradictions, expressing Mahler’s own struggles. PCE premieres a new chamber version in which the symphony’s whirling scherzo becomes a concertino for bass trombone—a wicked showcase for one of the world’s great instrumentalists, David Taylor.
