Mahler: Symphony No. 3

The composer who dared such open rivalry with God himself was also a brilliant conductor. “Architecture is music in space, as it were a frozen music,” Schelling once wrote, and Mahler applied this in his conducting style: music is architecture transposed into the dimension of time- moving, flowing architecture. Instead of merely tracing the outlines of fellow-artists’ musical blueprints with a schoolboyish hand, Mahler built forms based on the drawings of great musical architects. To Mahler, the actual process of constructing a musical form- its deployment along the axis of time- was infinitely more important than the ultimate goal, a perfectly formed crystal. Daniel Raiskin takes on Mahler’s third symphony, putting into practice this same idea of acting as a musical architect, a master builder who immediately brings his construction project into fruition in the concert hall.