PROGRAMME NOTES

Gustav Mahler

Symphony No. 1 in D major, "Titan"

Awaking The Titan

Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) composed his First Symphony (also known as “Titan) in the years leading up to 1888. It was inspired by his childhood memories of country life in Bohemia, as well as the novel “Titan” by the German author Jean Paul (Johann Paul Friedrich Richter). The premiere took place in 1889 in Budapest.

The music is a mix of avant-gardism, fin de siècle sentimentality and turbulent emotional landscapes. Mahler found important inspirations in the works of his predecessors: Beethoven, Berlioz and especially Richard Wagner, whose music he admired deeply. Mahler sought to further develop the symphonic form by expanding it beyond the traditional four movements, utilizing evocative programmatic elements, and through dramatically varied orchestral timbres – via virtuosic solo, chamber, and tutti passages – across mammoth symphonic canvases. As for his First Symphony, Mahler struggled to come to terms with it. Originally conceived as a five-movement work, the composer at the premiere called it a “symphonic poem in two parts” (the first three and last two movements separated by a break), and by 1893 incorporated the Jean Paul nod, titling it: “TITAN, a Tone Poem in the Form of a Symphony”. Finally, by 1896, Mahler rested on (and published) the four-movement version that we are most familiar with today, dropping both the “Titan” subtitle – and the Blumine movement – never quite sure whether the “Titan” was a programmatic work, a Symphonic Poem, or just a Symphony.

Mahler’s dilemma has been at the heart of a long-standing enigma in the classical tradition: is music able to convey concrete meaning such as a programmatic narrative or a storyline, or is it simply a language of its own, able to reach beyond words and express itself solely through the internality of its musical elements? In nineteenth- century Germanic music this led to two distinct philosophical camps vying for a dominant bannercarrying position: the opera-led “program” music in the Wagner camp vs. the symphonic-led “absolute” music in the Brahms camp. Mahler ultimately fused these traditions in his own symphonic output.

What does “Awaking” the Titan mean in Southeast Asia? In the YST context? In 2023? In a broad local sense, it raises the question of the meaning of the Western classical tradition in the Southeast Asian context; but ultimately this is a global, temporal challenge. How do conservatory students around the world connect to the late nineteenth-century Mahlerian world? How do twenty-first century performers and audiences relate to the fusion of programmatic and absolute elements inherent in Mahler’s voice? How do we make this music our own. In short, how do we move forward while honoring the footsteps of the past?

The students of the Conservatory and of YST’s Orchestral institute are rapidly creating a reputation for their innovative orchestral programming and creative performative approaches to iconic works of the past. Through programs such as a reimagined Stravinsky’s Petrouchka in 2019’s

“Telling Beyond Words”, Ravel’s Mother Goose

Suite interlaced with collaboratively composed interludes in 2021’s “Landscapes of Souls”, (both accessible through the Conservatory’s YouTube channel) – and now the collaboratively composed/ improvised prelude “Awaking the Titan” – YST seeks to link the present with the past, connecting cultures across space and time, and empowering young musicians to awaken their own limitless creativity.

The Prelude – and Mahler’s youthful fivemovement conception of his Symphony No. 1 that follows – builds a bridge connecting Southeast Asia with Europe, Singapore with Bohemia, and our 2023 with Mahler’s 1888. In this unique performance, never to be repeated the same way again, we hear the voices of our Conservatory students in a living dialogue with Mahler, honoring his inspiration, while preparing us for the magistral work that it invokes. Let us awaken the Titan!