Mahler. Sigh.

Mahler

The last concert of the season (at least since we've been subscribing) is Mahler. Last night, it was the Mahler Third, which run an incredible 1 3/4 hours.

Though our years of subscribing to the symphony, I've come to appreciate all sort of music that I had previously deemed "challenging" - in fact, I think one of the main benefits of subscribing (vs. cherry-picking single concerts) is that you are exposed to music you would otherwise not seek out. It has greatly broadened my musical horizons. But I think I've met my match with Mahler.

I'm concluding that I just don't connect to his music. There are interesting sections, but what is missing for me is that "swept away" feeling I get from almost all other music. I am not alone in this struggle (we met up with a friend post-concert who feels similarly). On the other end of the scale there are Mahler fanatics... the guy right behind me was clearly one. I just seem to be missing the Mahler boat (not so at all with Wagner, which will be apparent in August when I'll be posting about the upcoming production of The Flying Dutchman).

So ends another symphony season. Next season, we'll be attending about half the concerts we did this year due to the Third Tier seating snafu. I'm actually looking forward to stepping it down some, which will open our schedule up a bit more.