Symphony Orchestra

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Program notes by Mark Bilyeu

Gustav Mahler
Symphony No. 1 in D Major, Titan  
Born July 7, 1860, Kaliště, Bohemia
Died May 18, 1911,  Vienna
Composed  1887-1888
Premiered November 20, 1889, Budapest, Gustav Mahler, conductor
Duration 60 minutes

In 1886, a twenty-six year old Mahler was employed as the second conductor of the Leipzig Operahouse. During his two years there, he set himself apart not as the exceptional conductor he was—the principal conductor Arthur Nikisch seemed to alway be finding the spotlight—but for his arrangement and completion of Carl Maria von Weber’s opera: Die drei Pintos. Folks came from across Europe for this works re-premiere (including the likes of Tchaikovsky), and soon Mahler’s work was being programmed in Hamburg, Munich, Dresden, Kassel and Vienna. The financial success this project brought allowed him the time to compose what would become his first symphony—and simultaneously carry on a torrid affair with Marion von Weber (wife to the grandson of Carl Maria).  Mahler was torn as to the music he should write. At this time there was a division amongst the musical elite as to the value of programmatic music (music championed by Franz Liszt, which had a stated narrative) or absolute music (music which many associate with Wagner, existing on its own, without any stated plot or description). And thus, the not-yet-thirty composer, who would go on to be one of the most influential symphonic voices in the history of Western music, waffled, wavered, and flip-flopped until finally settling on his four-movement Symphony in D Major heard on this program. 

Originally, the five-movement work was in two parts, and carried these descriptors, designated by the composer:
 

Part I: From the days of youth, "youth, fruit, and thorn pieces".
1. Spring and no end. This introduction describes the awakening of nature at the earliest dawn.
2. Flowerine Chapter (Andante).
3. Set with full sails (Scherzo).
Part II: Commedia umana (Human Comedy)
1. Stranded. A funeral march in the manner of Callot.
2. Dall'inferno al Paradiso (From Hell to Heaven), as the sudden expression of a deeply wounded heart.
 

The opening movement incorporates his own Lieder tune “Ging heut' Morgen über's Feld" ("I Went This Morning over the Field"), while the second movement (known as Blumine, and not performed here) steals from some incidental music Mahler had previously written. “Set with full sais” was apparently a title given after it’s completion, but takes from his own song about Hansel and Gretel. Mahler opens the second half with the student round Bruder Martin ("Brother Martin, Are You Sleeping?" also known as Frère Jacques), but sets it in an unsettling minor mode. Finally, as if to perfectly illustrate his own indecisiveness, he quotes both the Dante Symphony by Liszt and Wagner’s Parsifal in his closing movement. 
 

The composer conducted the first three performances in Budapest, Hamburg, and Weimar; nowhere did the work’s programmatic nature impress. Doubling down on a storyline, he dubbed the second half “Titan,” but that also did not land for the public.  So, he took action: before the work’s fourth outing—this time in Berlin—he cut the Blumine movement and removed all program notes from the work, leaving the structure now considered standard.  So: feel empowered to ignore all the preceeding information, and simply bask in the sheer beauty and absolute brilliance of Mahler’s first symphony. 

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About the Artists

Farkhad Khudyev

Farkhad Khudyev is the winner of the Gold Medal “Beethoven 250” at the 1st International Arthur Nikisch Conducting Competition; the Solti Foundation US 2018 and 2022 Career Assistance Award; the Best Interpretation Prize at the 1st International Taipei Conducting Competition; the 3rd prize at the 8th International Sir Georg Solti Conducting Competition; and the Gold Medal/Grand Prize at the 2007 National Fischoff Competition. Khudyev has worked with orchestras worldwide including the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, Frankfurt Opera Orchestra, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, Dallas Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Diego Symphony, Monterey Symphony, George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra, Xi’an Symphony Orchestra and the State Taipei Chinese Orchestra. Farkhad was born in Turkmenistan, where he studied at the State Music School for gifted musicians, and then completed his studies at Interlochen Arts Academy, Oberlin Conservatory and Yale University. Khudyev serves as the Music Director of the University of Texas Symphony Orchestra in Austin, and the Orchestral Institute at the Hidden Valley Institute of the Arts in Carmel, California.

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