A Wonderful Experience at Carnegie Hall

On November 19th, at the worldwide recognized Carnegie Hall, the Philadelphia Orchestra, conducted by Christoph Eschenbach composed by more than sixty people and several instruments, performed the Symphony no. 7. Written by Gustave Mahler in 1904-05, this piece contains 5 movements and is approximately 90 minutes long. Although this piece has been considered by Mahler as his "best work and predominantly of a cheerful character", it is one of the least frequently performed of his symphonies and the last one to enter the repertory of The Philadelphia Orchestra.

The performance started with the Symphony's first movement called Langsam (Adagio) - Allegro risoluto, ma non troppo. On this movement, just like the name says, the mood was happy but not so much. It all began with the sound of horns, trumpets and trombones reminding a great legion waiting for the sign to attack on the battlefield. As the movement goes by, the instruments from the string family such as violins, violas, cellos and bass start to be heard. We have here the perfect mix of a more lyrical sound (strings) with strong tones ( ).

The second movement named Nachtmusik (Night Music): Allegro moderato starts with a dialogue between a loud horn that dictates the rhythm and another horn that answers almost silently, muted. However, the dialogue is interrupted by the woodwind family instruments such as the oboes and the flutes. These instruments are much more present on this second movement than in the first one. Another important difference is that the mood seems to get better as the music goes by. The sound is gradually changing from horns and percussion instruments to another level, where the flutes and strings dictate the lovely rhythm.

Scherzo: Schattenhaft (Shadow-like) is the third and most important movement of the symphony. This piece written by Mahler has a symmetric structure: the second and the forth movements are introduction to the main movements. On this third movement, the order that the instruments are played make the audience confused. On the previous movements, the mood was getting better as the time goes by. On this one, the piece starts following the trends, with nice melodies from the string family (actually this is the movement where they dominate the most). However, when we reach the end of the movement, the sounds of horns and trumpets are heard again, introducing a more obscure and sinister element on the melody. It seems like we're retrograding on the music, going back to a previous stage full of doubts and uncertain.

When the forth movement called nachtmusick: Andante amoroso began, I noticed that it was very similar to the second one. Both of them were intended to be played by a few number of artists. They were supposed to be played at night, just like a serenade. These pieces have a more personal touch than the other movements. On this 4th for instance, the concertmaster even played a mandolin solo, which