Music Critique: Experiential Evaluation

This critique is based on an experiential evaluation of the MIT Symphony Orchestra concert. Mahler's Fourth Symphony is usually considered the composer's most popular symphonic work. Part of its popularity is because of what makes it different from his other symphonies. The concert held at Avery Fisher Hall, an exquisite concert-hall in New York City, on Thursday March 3rd, 2011 at 7:30 p.m. the MIT Symphony was directed by Dante Anzolini, and hosted a presentation show about classical music, comprising of Ravel's Tzigane, Janacek's Lachian Dance, and Mahler's Symphony No.4. This was indeed a worthwhile event that I attended, leading me to understand and see musical representations very closely.

Despite the fact that the music evening was very well-presented, led by beautiful performances by the orchestra and soloists Rachel Levinson '01 (violin), and Pamela Wood (soprano), it was surprising to see that few people attended the concert since three quarters of the Kresge Auditorium was left vacant. This under-attendance of the audience can only be attributed to the fact that the concert was held in weekday that engaged many students in their midterms and other assessments.

The idea is that music is connected to the dream and the unconscious, thus enables to utter truths that lay beyond reason and some romance. A touch of melancholy and painful beauty pervades Gustav Mahler's fourth Symphony. The whole tone is unmistakable Mahler's fully trained already here. Mahler was aware of treading new ground with his music. A childhood friend wrote about his first Symphony: "I suppose you're the only one to whom it will be new to me nothing, the others are probably wondering about many things!" The first performance in 1889, after four years of work on the composition, then fell into a fiasco (www.gustav-mahler.org).

Leos Janacek's Lachian Dance No.1 was ...