Grado, Mahler and Veni Creator Spiritus

Last week I finally got around to sending for some replacements for my Grado SR80 earphones. Some months ago I noticed that the spongy material on the ear pieces had degraded to the point where they were not just leaving black rings around my ears but also a kind of black dusting down the front of my shirts.
I had thought to invest in some expensive replacements but heyI'm 65 and the frequency range of my hearing must be deteriorating by now - so after an online search I found some replacement "doughnuts". which duly arrived at the end of last week. The reorganisation of my workroom also meant that I hadn't got my Sony CD player back in action until quite recently either and this coincidence of events prompted me to play something - but what?

During my late teens and early twenties I had been introduced to Mahler's first and fourth symphonies. I was intrigued by the contrasts between the beauty of so much of his music and the cacophony (or so it seemed) of some of the more raucous passages. However I was coming around to a genuine appreciation of the man's genius. I was 24 when I was persuaded by a good friend to accompany him to some concerts in London, On Sunday 10 September 1972 at 5:00PM we, with hundreds of others, stood in the Royal Albert Hall, having queued for several (enjoyable) hours to hear a prom concert. How can I be so precise? Well mainly because I still have a programme and also because the BBC have provided an archive of prom concert programmes from as far back as 1890. Here's the entry -

Gustav Mahler Symphony No. 2 in C minor 'Resurrection'

Elgar Howarth associate conductor
Sheila Armstrong soprano
Anna Reynolds mezzo-soprano

Philharmonia Chorus (1964-77, New Philharmonia Chorus)
Munich Philharmonic
Rudolf Kempe conductor

I believe that the work is 80 to 90 minutes long. I could not have told you how long it lasted (nor could I since) because time was totally suspended and I could have stood there for hours. This was the concert at which I really began to appreciate Mahler's genius. A live performance of the 3rd symphony at the Festival Hall on my way to a work-related course followed soon after and I was a convert.

But it was not the second symphony that I turned to last night. Back in July last year after a gap of a few years, I had listened again to Mahler's 8th symphony, "The Symphony of a Thousand", being performed at the proms. The opening movement - Mahler's setting of the ancient hymn "Veni Creator Spiritus" is one of the most spectacular and moving pieced of music ever written. It is also a piece of music that has been in my mind for months now. So I dug out my recording by the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Claudio Abbado and hit play.

WOW! What an experience! After recovering from the full-on opening I sat enraptured for the 24 minutes of that first movement, hearing intricacies and nuances that I had never before noticed. This is music that has layer upon layer of wonderful counterpoint, harmony, dissonance. It's by turns angelic, brash, daring. It has more climaxes than it seems possible to fit into 24 minutes. It seems almost impossible that soloists and choir can sing such high notes. But above all it's glorious.

The soaring double fugue "Accende lumen sensibus infunde amorem cordibus" (Kindle our sense from above, and make our hearts o'erflow with love) is just thrilling and when the chorus and orchestra finally burst into "Deo Patri sit Gloria" (Now to the Father and the Son, who rose from death, be glory given, with Thou, O Holy Comforter, henceforth by all in earth and heaven.) I always feel that this must be the absolute climax - what can top this? And then just to confound all expectations the "Amen" soars to the highest heaven before the final triumphal E flat major chord. I will confess freely that the finale never fails to move me to tears.

Just a couple of technicalities. I am a huge Solti fan and still rate his recording with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra highly but I have to say that this Abbado recording is brilliantly produced and the sound is amazing. The Grado's did me proud - clarity and loads of punch.

Thank you Grado, Sony, Abbado, BSO. Thank you Mahler for over 40 years of delight and pleasure and thanks be to the God who inspires such glorious words which inspire such glorious music.

(In case anyone should think otherwise, I love the rest of the symphony too although somehow, this first movement seems almost to stand alone)