I was listening to a recording of Jascha Horenstein conducting Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 on Henry Fogel’s “Collectors’ Corner” last night on KWAX. Frequently identified as the “Symphony of a Thousand,” this is Mahler’s grandest statement, as if he took the choral finale of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, dialed it up to 11, and stretched it more or less to 90 minutes. It is hair-raisingly thrilling.
“Try to imagine the whole universe beginning to ring and resound,” Mahler wrote, in his characteristically overheated way. “There are no longer human voices, but planets and suns revolving.”
All the same, a man needs his sleep, and 11:00 (EDT) is already past my bedtime, especially if I want to do some reading. So I rose from my chair to turn out the lights and shut off my internet radio, when what did I notice on one of the speakers, but a spider with its legs splayed, unmistakably riding the grandiose waves of the music.
I couldn’t take that away from him. So I went back and sat down until the end of the first movement (about 25 minutes in duration).
I was reminded of Helen Keller, deaf and blind since she was a toddler, who experienced the thrill of Beethoven’s 9th purely through the vibrations of her radio speaker.
I waited until the end of the first movement to turn off the radio. I figured I’d allow the little guy his moment of ecstasy.
I’m not sure what I believe, exactly, but if I’m ever reincarnated, I hope someone will do as much for me.
Here’s a post I wrote about Keller in 2020.
https://rossamico.com/2020/12/31/beethovens-ninth-joy-freedom-2020/
