I'd like to thank Dumbo for giving me the opportunity to be a guest blogger in the Thursday Classical Music Series. It's a great series, and I'm looking forward to covering Mahler's Fourth Symphony today. It's one of the most wonderful symphonies in the entire canon, with its last two movements being some of the most gorgeous music ever composed for orchestra. So let's get started, shall we?
[Panic-stricken conductor comes up to lone1c and whispers frantically in lone1c's ear.]
Wait. I'm supposed to cover Beethoven's Fourth? Really? Do I have to? You're sure you wouldn't rather want to hear about the Shostakovich Fourth, or Vaughan Williams's, or Brahms's, or Ives's Fourth instead?
[More whispering.]
Or Bruckner? Or Mendelssohn? How about Mendelssohn? Come on—everybody would rather hear about the Italian, right? Bah-dah-dah, bah-dah-dah, bah-DAAAH-ta-ta-ta!
[More frantic whispering ensues. lone1c deflates in defeat.]
No? Well, okay then. Beethoven's Fourth it is. Follow me under the flourish while I suffer my penance, will you please?
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