I wanted us to listen to it first before watching the dance
It is well worth your time
Dudamel and the Berlin do a phenomenal job!
WHEW!
I was tired after this frenzied performance
WOW!
The only flaw is in the beginning when the camera man can't find the 1st Oboe player who is playing the opening solo while holding the camera on the English Horn player who isn't playing at that time. Whoa!
"Mahler's third movement is a Scherzo based on his own song "St. Anthony Preaches to the Fishes". It's a very sinuous and humorous sounding piece where Mahler tries to paint a musical image of the irony and fickleness of our everyday lives. It is a poetic metaphor where the people, like the fish, spend their everyday lives swimming aimlessly about, and while they may be temporarily moved by the Saint's words, they ultimately turn back to their vice filled lives. Mahler marked this movement in his score "with humor" for a sound of irony in the piece. Later on Mahler wrote in a letter to a friend about his music,
"St Anthony preaches to the fishes, and his words are translated in the tipsy sounding language of the clarinet... and they all come swimming up to him, a glittering shoal of them, eels, carp and pike with their pointed heads, I swear while I was composing, I really kept imaging that I saw them sticking their stiff immovable necks out of the water and gazing up at St. Anthony with their stupid faces, I had to laugh out loud... The Bohemian music of my childhood home has found it's way in many of my compositions, but especially in my "St. Anthony Preaches to the Fishes"."
St. Anthony Preaches to the Fishes by Paolo Veronese Here is a poem about St. Anthony preaching to the fishes by a 17th century Augustinian priest, Abraham a Sancta Clara:
"St. Anthony arrives for his sermon
and finds the church empty.
He goes to the rivers
to preach to the fishes;
They flick their tails,
which glisten in the sunshine.
The carp with roe
have all come here,
their mouths wide open,
listening attentively.
No sermon ever
pleased the carp so.
Sharp-mouthed pike
that fight continuously
have come here, swimming hurriedly
to hear this pious one;
No sermon ever
pleased the pike so.
Also, those fantastic creatures
that are always fasting -
the stockfish, I mean -
they also appeared for the sermon;
No sermon ever
pleased the stockfish so.
Good eels and sturgens,
that banquet so elegantly -
even they took the trouble
to hear the sermon:
No sermon ever
pleased the eels so.
Crabs too, and turtles,
usually such slowpokes,
rise quickly from the bottom,
to hear this voice.
No sermon ever
pleased the crabs so.
Big fish, little fish,
noble fish, common fish,
all lift their heads
like sentient creatures:
At God's behest
they listen to the sermon.
The sermon having ended,
each turns himself around;
the pikes remain thieves,
the eels, great lovers.
The sermon has pleased them,
but they remain the same as before.
The crabs still walk backwards,
the stockfish stay rotund,
the carps still gorge themselves:
the sermon is forgotten.
The sermon has pleased them,
but they remain the same as before."
~*~
There were three great performances I had to choose from: The 1966 Solti, an Ozawa, and this Dudamel. I chose the Dudamel because it was more fun to watch. They did a great job of showing the instruments as they played - Even the guy playing the Triangle! :) I thought this might be a better performance for those of you who are not familiar with this piece. ENJOY!!!
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