David Dalle
Thursday May 14th, 2020 with David Dalle
Sun Ra Goes to Translyvania: thoughts of Mahler and Astro-Hungarian Jewish Music with Frank London.

Last Friday was the beginning of the Concertgebouw's Mahlerfest 2020 in Amsterdam. This festival was celebrating the 100th anniversary of the first Mahler festival hosted by the Concertgebouw under the direction of Willem Mengelberg. That festival in 1920 was the first time all 9 of Mahler's symphonies were performed together. Of course, the pandemic has cancelled the 2020 festival, however, the Concertgebouw has been presenting an online festival with the same schedule. They are showing a documentary for each symphony followed by a live recording of the symphony from the Concertgebouw archive. You can watch all of them from day 1 and the festival continues through Sunday. https://www.concertgebouw.nl/en/mahler-festival-online I had tickets for the festival, and I already grieved the loss of this incredible musical experience (https://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/105/47485.html). But obviously I very much have Mahler on the mind this week, we won't hear a symphony (visit the online Mahlerfest for those!), but we will hear one of his greatest orchestral song cycles and some of Uri Caine's fascinating takes on Mahler's music as well as the earliest surviving piece by Mahler, a single movement for piano quartet he composed when he was 16. It is full of pathos and the rich dark colours which pointed towards his future. We will also hear from Frank London and his Glass House Orchestra and his wonderful 2017 album "Astro-Hungarian Jewish Music". I did write it correctly, it IS Astro-, not Austro-; it's been described as "Sun Ra goes to Transylvania".