[Mahler, Gustav. (1860–1911] Walter, Bruno. (1876–1962)
Mahler Symphony no. 4 - Autograph Musical Quotation with Photograph
Autograph musical quotation from the great German conductor closely associated with Mahler, whose music he helped establish in the repertory. Walter has penned the theme from the first movement of Mahler's Symphony no. 4 on a small sheet, and has signed and dated Munich, November 21, 1929. Matted together with a photograph of Walter on the podium, to an overall size of 6 x 11.5 inches (15.5 x 29 cm). Some slight smudging to the quotation but otherwise very fine.The Fourth occupies a unique place among Gustav Mahler’s nine symphonies. From its opening sleigh bells, it pulls us into a bright, exuberant drama- a song-symphony of occasional sardonic humor, frivolity, introspection, and ultimate innocence. Its instrumentation suggests a light, pared-down classicism in which the low brass voices of the trombones and tuba are conspicuously absent. Mahler described the Fourth Symphony’s unique atmosphere this way:
"Imagine the uniform blue of the sky…Occasionally…it darkens and becomes phantasmagorical and terrifying: but it is not that it becomes overcast, for the sun continues to shine in its eternal blue, only to us it suddenly seems horrific, just as, on the most beautiful day in a sunlit forest, one can be seized with panic and terror." Three teasing pickup notes at the start of the present quotation usher in the ebullient first theme, which, as the story goes, Mahler told the violins to savor, as if they were preparing to launch into a Viennese waltz. (16820)
AMQS Classical Music