Mahler’s Resurrection – now with live rappers
OrchestrasThe Phoenix Symphony proudly presents:
With music visionary and guest conductor Steve Hackman, The Phoenix Symphony is fusing Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac Shakur with classical music in a groundbreaking performance, The Resurrection Mixtape, May 17-19 at Symphony Hall.
Recordings such as Biggie’s “Juicy,” “Hypnotize” and “Who Shot Ya” and Tupac’s “Changes,” “Ghetto Gospel” and “California Love” are interpolated in thematically linked mashups that speak of hard roads, ravaged communities, gangster life and letting loose. As Mahler’s music whirls and rises to its triumphant climax, you’ll be reminded of the powerful and profound legacy of these two rappers, who, twenty-five years after their deaths, are as relevant and essential as ever.
Local hip hop organization, the Furious Styles Crew, will perform a pre-party cypher in the Symphony Hall lobby one hour before each concert.
Abandon hope all ye who enter.
Ffs.
As a sophisticated Viennese, Gustav Mahler was surely very hip in his time. However, I’m not sure that he would appreciate the hop.
Is the Resurrection symphony becoming the Zombie symphony?
Luciano Berio’s Sinfonia re-composed?
The worst possible taste.
Not sure — it could have been N.W.A. Straight Outta the Tomb…
Phoenix is getting a bad rap with The Insurrection Mistake.
” As Mahler’s music whirls and rises to its triumphant climax, you’ll be reminded of the powerful and profound legacy of these two rappers, who, twenty-five years after their deaths, are as relevant and essential as ever.”
All will be clarified in the pre-party (?) cypher, whatever that might be. As in how many people found either of these two relevant or essential before they were offed. Or had even heard of them. Not many of the usual Resurrection crowd, I venture.
It isn’t April 1.
I assume they are doing this to get new audience, but paying the royalties to play all those recordings will eat up a chunk of the proceeds. Plus it’ll probably drive away as many old audience members as it’d attract new audience members. Self defeating economic decision.
Artistically and ethically, not Mahler, but the rappers Biggie and Tupac would be turning over in their graves, to see their resistant raps coopted and tamed by white people and Viennese classical music.
No recordings are used.
It’s been proved by big data such combinations do not attract new audiences who will next come back for classical fare. Fans of hip-hop might come to this one, but they won’t come to Mahler as such.
Compare Biggy:
“Biggie Smalls, it’s all good, n****
Junior Mafia, it’s all good, n****
Bad Boy, it’s all good, n****”
…with Mahler:
“Arise, yes, you will arise from the dead,
My dust, after a short rest!
Eternal life
Will be given you by Him who called you.”
Oy.
Cousin Gilda: ‘Interesting comparison, but what does n**** mean?’
Billy: ‘No idea. Maybe SD readers could help us.’
Pairing with Beethoven 9th is much better, afterall, aren’t the lines
“Biggie Smalls, it’s all good, nigga; Junior Mafia, it’s all good, nigga; Bad Boy, it’s all good, nigga”
a literal translation of Schiller’s
“Alle menschen werden Brüder” ?
I think so.
No doubt young people will flock to the hall, and suddenly understand classical music in one go.
Aufersteh’n, ya aufersteh’n,
My man Mahler’s what this band is playin’.
Mein herz, mein herz, in einem nu,
Our assault on the senses is just for you.
Was . . . du . . . gesch–lag–en,
Some white folks need a bang–on–the–noggin.
Zu gott, Zu gott,
A tune we’ve not.
Uh–huh . . . Uh–huh . . . Uh–HUH.
Yes and I also don’t understand the hollaballoo. After a night partying I use that Auferstehen thing to get up in the morning.
Sally
I’m going to be there, and I’ll be recording it with my phone, too! I will also mouth all the words, and maybe even sing aloud.
If anyone in their right mind thinks that this is a good idea then God help us. I’m just so grateful that I’m at the end of my career. No hope if this is the new norm.
The Baltimore Symphony did this show – or something very much like it – not long ago. I notice none of the comments below give any hint that they have seen this production. Just a lot of people taking themselves much too seriously.
Perhaps someone who saw – or participated in – the Baltimore production could share their experience/impressions.
That makes sense. Phoenix Symphony’s new manager was previously Baltimore’s manager.
The Phoenix Symphony finally met the demands of the hip-hop advocates who’d been protesting for greater awareness among the 55+ white and, increasingly, Asian crowd.
Hip-hop doesn’t have nearly the representation it deserves in said demographic.
Protest all you want, but I doubt the rappers will welcome John Corigliano, Caroline Shaw, Adolphus Hailstork, or Phillip Glass as collabs on their albums anytime soon.
“If Liberals ate the way the want the world to be, there’d be thousand island dressing on shrimp fried rice and ketchup covered sushi on a plate of jambalaya and kale lasagna”
Where is the puke emoji when you need it
I will hear the Mahler on Friday. I won’t be anywhere near this potential travesty the following week. Sadly, the Phoenix Symphony like practically every other orchestra in the USA is doing more and more pops, movie nights and stuff this this rap concert to fill the seats and bring in much needed cash. Classical music is less relevant in society less than ever – and it’s not just an American problem. It’d be nice to think that recent movies like Maestro and Tar would make more people at least a little curious about Mahler, but it doesn’t work that way.
Why don’t you check it out? It could be great – you don’t know if you don’t try.
I love Mahler 2 as much as anyone and I don’t listen to hip-hop at all, but I’m certainly open to see/hear what they’re trying to do here. We can try new things in music; a problem in all genres is that people don’t know what they like – they like what they know. So live a little; at worst you’re out a few dollars and a few hours of your life you can never get back.
Western classical music is doing very well in East Asia and South America. Even India, which has its own classical music as a popular art form, has now its first symphony orchestra and classical music magazine (‘Serenade’). It’s the modern / postmodern West where the blasé mood has been eating away its own musical greatness.
Might have helped had either been a good movie. Tar jumped the shark and Maestro was just boring.
If enough people like it – it might work. If not – “I told you so” wins.
Came to the comments for the usual snobbery… Was not disappointed.
Rap music has long held a torch for classical music- just check out Dance with the Devil by Immortal Technique or one of my personal fav albums The long road restrung by Hilltop Hoods and the Adelaide philharmonic.
People complain that young people don’t find classical music relevant and audience numbers are in the toilet then something like this is announced and they proceed to lambast it without fail.
You think this will help, do you? No, it will just disappear with all the other “whizzo schemes” (to use a highly appropriate phrase recently employed here).
Snobbery? This genius is not entitled to respect, he’ll have to earn it like composers have been expected to do for hundreds of years.
What next? Symphony of a Thousand Rappers? Can hardly wait.
Yes, it’s all very difficuolt, but it may be worthwhile trying again and again.
“Relevant” — the most abused concept of recent times to rope the young into classical music.
You want “relevant”? Perform and present great music to the best of your abilities, period. No amount.of camouflage such as slides/videos, rappers, informally-dressed musicians, pre-performance cutesy speeches by performers, etc. will ever replace this. Those who hide behind such camouflage are admitting to the world that they have no faith in music, and shouldn’t be in the profession.
https://youtu.be/cFzRZpjxJug?si=Yld9YeMCOlLeTQ2s
Unclutch the pearls girls. If you don’t want to hear it – don’t go.
“Recordings such as Biggie’s …“Who Shot Ya”. Shouldn’t that be, “Who shot me?”
Next up, Taylor Swift sings about Mahler as yet another lover who disappointed her.
I smell a grant.
Norman, you need to stop eliminating sentences from press releases and taking things out of context.
I went to the orchestra’s website and found that this is a performance by the Phoenix Pops and is marketed as “The Resurrection Mixtape”:
https://www.phoenixsymphony.org/show/the-resurrection-mixtape/
In the preceding days, the Phoenix Symphony will have performed Mahler II as written:
https://www.phoenixsymphony.org/show/mahlers-symphony-no-2-resurrection/
This is the most stillborn idea in the history of orchestra/classical music “outreach”—the Phoenix Symphony may as well take its dog to a gravel pit and shoot it. (For those outside the U.S., Google “Kristi Noem” and dog.)
The encore will be drive-by shooting, a rap & hip-hop cultural tradition.
Without the resurrection bit.
Cue the (knee)jerk apologists who will berate those rejecting the idea, and will welcome this and other disasters as a way of engaging a disinterested public in classical music.
If it sells tickets, it’s not a disaster.
And I welcome any departure from:
– Overture
– stage reset
– Overplayed piano/violin/cello concerto
– Intermission
– Symphony
Part of the reason for that disinterested public, I suspect.
There are enough orchestras who offer different program stucture.
As conductor James DePreist said, “A disaster is nothing more than a bad idea that has gotten funding.”
ANY departure? Be careful what you wish for.
The word is actually “uninterested.” I suggest you look up “disinterested” — it is a rare and useful word describing a quality that we could wish were more widespread.
I took your advice and looked it up — here is one of its definitions:
• having or feeling no interest in something.
…which is exactly how I meant its use.
(Notice that I didn’t say “it’s”.)
Full marks for “its.” Something I learned at school or even before.
The first definition is “not influenced by considerations of personal advantage.” The second is American.
>> The second is American.
As am I.
And — “Bravo!” for your comment regarding the Leonard Bernstein speech.
These concerts in Baltimore were highly successful. Hackman is very good at fusing different styles as well as conducting. Wish we could have the electric vibe from this new audience in our classical audiences!
Thanks for letting us know. It wouldn’t be a show I personally would go to, but if they sold well and were well-received, I really can’t say much.
Oy gevalt ! Farshtunken ! 🙁
Last year in Milwaukee I saw this conductor perform his own, er, mashup of Radiohead’s album “OK Computer” with Brahms’s First and it was done well, I enjoyed it…but I simply can’t imagine this working out very well.
Very disappointed in Phoenix Symphony. I had great hopes for them with their new manager, who’s former pro-oboist-turned MBA, but if he’s responsible for this, no longer a fan.
As someone else pointed out, Mahler 2 & the Mahler hip hop extravaganza are 2 separate events, but it’s still ridiculous. The Phoenix Symph’s constant pandering to pop is overwhelming. Their season doesn’t even look like a symphony season any more. They are trying so hard to attract diverse audiences that they are alienating their regular audiences.
What serious classical music lover would subscribe to the Phoenix Symphony with this insane programming?
If they want works by artists of color, program Hailstork or Coleman or Price or Blanchard. Hip hop doesn’t represent all of non-white US. The entire world doesn’t need to love or even accept hip hop. Shoving it down our throats & trying to force us to believe that a dead rapper is the artistic equivalent of Gustav Mahler makes us resent hip hop even more.
Shame on you, Phoenix Symphony.
If you look at the entire 2024/25 season it’s actually quite balanced. The classics series is quite good and there’s also a chamber orchestra series worth exploring. Then they’re doing what everyone else does: accompanying movies. Plenty of Messiahs. And yes, the pop stuff. If orchestras are to survive they need (must) to reach out to as many potential listeners and donors as possible. They need to be a part of the whole society and not just the snooty classical fans. You may not like it, but the financial reality demands it.
Leonard Bernstein Speech made at United Jewish Appeal Benefit 25 November 1963
My dear friends: Last night the New York Philharmonic and I performed Mahler’s Second Symphony—“The Resurrection” –in tribute to the memory of our beloved late President. There were those who asked: Why the “Resurrection” Symphony, with its visionary concept of hope and triumph over worldly pain, instead of a Requiem, or the customary Funeral March from the “Eroica”?
Why indeed? We played the Mahler symphony not only in terms of resurrection for the soul of one we love, but also for the resurrection of hope in all of us who mourn him. In spite of our shock, our shame, and our despair at the diminution of man that follows from this death, we must somehow father strength for the increase of man, strength to go on striving for those goals he cherished. In mourning him, we must be worthy of him. I know of no musician in this country who did not love John F. Kennedy. American artists have for three years looked to the White House with unaccustomed confidence and warmth. We loved him for the honor in which he held art, in which he held every creative impulse of the human mind, whether it was expressed in words, or notes, or paints, or mathematical symbols. This reverence for the life of the mind was apparent even in his last speech, which he was to have made a few hours after his death. He was to have said: “America’s leadership must be guided by learning and reason.”
Learning and reason: precisely the two elements that were necessarily missing from the mind of anyone who could have fired that impossible bullet. Learning and reason: the two basic precepts of all Judaistic tradition, the twin sources from which every Jewish mind from Abraham and Moses to Freud and Einstein has drawn its living power. Learning and Reason: the motto we here tonight must continue to uphold with redoubled tenacity, and must continue, at any price, to make the basis of all our actions. It is obvious that the grievous nature of our loss is immensely aggravated by the element of violence involved in it. And where does this violence spring from?
From ignorance and hatred—the exact antonyms of Learning and Reason: those two words of John Kennedy’s were not uttered in time to save his own life; but every man can pick them up where they fell, and make them part of himself, the seed of that rational intelligence without which our world can no longer survive. This must become the mission of every artist, of every Jew, and of every man of goodwill: to insist, unflaggingly, at the risk of becoming a repetitive bore, but to insist on the achievement of a world in which the mind will have triumphed over violence.
We musicians, like everyone else, are numb with sorrow at this murder, and with rage at the senselessness of the crime. But this sorrow and rage will not inflame us to seek retribution; rather they will inflame our art. Our music will never again be quite the same. This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before. And with each note we will honor the spirit of John Kennedy, commemorate his courage, and reaffirm his faith in the Triumph of the Mind.
I’d never read that speech. Thank you for posting. It brings back childhood memories — of the Kennedy White House as a cultural centre, where the greatest artists of the day were assembled. This is the White House that got Pablo Casals to return to the US, the one that got the Mona Lisa brought to the US, the one that hosted a dinner for Nobel laureates, that brought ballet to the East Room, and much, much more.
It did not make the President and his family elitist; that they clearly enjoyed more popular entertainment is shown in the name by which the regime is characterised — Camelot. But the cultural offerings of subsequent administrations has hardly paid any more than lip service to the notions of learning and reason. We are now facing a next president whose capacity for unreason is well known, and whose lawyers have threatened legal action to any of his education establishments from kindergarten up if they release his academic records.
Sic transit…from the best and the brightest to influencers.
Fabulously inculcated by the wokerati credo…D.E.I. Someone should begin writing a Requiem for the Symphonic Orchestra because it’s death is on the horizon.
This is the stupidest idea of all time.
Perhaps some people ought to read up on Steve Hackman. Here’s an interview he did before a similar engagement in Dallas (I don’t suppose Fabio Luisi is lurking around to comment?). https://www.dmagazine.com/arts-entertainment/2023/03/classical-music-innovator-steve-hackman-is-bringing-a-night-of-tchaikovsky-and-drake-to-dallas/
A worthy experiment as any! Classical is dead without innovation.