FoBoBlo

Before too long, I will be writing a post on the best Washington, DC classical music blogs. Rest assured that when I do, number one on my list will be WETA’s Classical Critic at Large and blogger Jens F. Laurson. I’ve had the pleasure of knowing Jens since he was skillfully manning the helm at the Tower Records’ Classical section, and he is the person who pretty much built my personal CD collection. After having written about Mahler Month a little while back, I thought it might be a good idea to get his thoughts on what went into making it happen. Jens was the main organizing force in the event, and a avowed Mahler addict. After the jump you’ll find my interview with him.

Jens F. Laurson, WETA's Classical Critic at Large

R: How did you convince WETA to run Mahler Month?

JFL: Badgering, whinging, and pleading. And a very open minded, truly music-loving program director. [ed.: David Ginder Jim Allison]

R: What has it been like, essentially being the program director for this series?

JFL: That’s an overstatement… but I did get to put together these Mahler cycles–and every time you are part of creating something where you can see, or hear, the results, it’s rather gratifying.

R: Do you feel a lot of pressure to choose the just right recordings, or do you instead have a pool of a few that would work each time and at that point it becomes a coin flip?

JFL: No, not really any pressure. With all the Mahler nuts out there, there’s no avoiding that one always choses the “one truly awful” recording that someone has spent much effort to dislike. Similarly, there are so many good recordings that the difference between my first and fifth choice is sometimes marginal. If anything, it’s sometimes sad that one can’t play yet more alternative versions. I’d love to have played the Suitner M1, the Neumann/Leipzig M5, the Ancerl M9… for example; performances full of character and zest that all are not first choice but are a good deal more colorful than some of the first choices in other symphonies.

R: How did you personally get into Mahler?

JFL: I felt that I probably should like Mahler… and then listened to it until I did. I listened to this weird composer without any understanding and became familiar while staying ignorant. The obsession with Mahler didn’t start until much later.

Also: Taking a girl out to a concert with Mahler’s 1st (and something Mozart or other in the first half) also helped. I didn’t make too much of an impression on her, I think, but Mahler on me.

R: I know a favorite Mahler symphony is impossible, but what one have you been listening to the most lately?

JFL: The Sixth and the Ninth are the ones that almost never bore me. I’ve been listening to fairly little Mahler in the last two years.. and now in the run-up to Mahler Month to too much… Haitink’s Fourth with Schaefer is probably the only Mahler CD that I listened to exclusively for pleasure, rather than work.

R: You mentioned a Charles Bukowski quote that in essence said “it is impossible to tire of Mahler,” and then in passing said that you disagree. Why is that?

JFL: I have overdosed on Mahler, I think… and Mahler is a composer that not everybody can be in the mood for at all times. I’ve spoken of Bruckner as a love, Mahler an addiction… sometimes you wouldn’t mind being able to shake an addiction. Addictions aren’t friends in the same way as a chosen love is. There’s a lot of emotional dreck in Mahler, which you might also consider ‘grit’ or ‘authenticity’. That makes him so attractive and easy to relate to, but it also makes it more easy to tire of him.

But then I say this having listened to an obscene amount of Mahler… more than any person should or ever likely would.

R: What do you think is the state of classical music in DC, and particularly at the Kennedy Center?

JFL: …and the state of classical music is strong. Thanks to a few institutions and tireless individuals, DC has one of the world’s best chamber music scenes… and for every size of wallet, too. Even if it only had the chamber music scene (sometimes I think: especially if it only had the chamber music scene), Washingtonians could be proud of their city on the count of classical offerings.The efforts of the embassies and cultural institutes, especially the French and the Austrians, are tremendously enriching, too. And of course the present and future of the National  Symphony Orchestra–with Ivan Fischer and soon with Christoph Eschenbach–is something to be hopeful and even excited about. And half of everything going on at the Terrace Theater seems eminently worth checking out these days, too.

R: Any recommendations for music that isn’t The Messiah in the coming month?

JFL: Speaking of Messiah, I have, for the first time in years and years, bought a recording of The Messiah this year. I got it as a sort of joke-gift to myself, to compare to the excellent new Rene Jacobs Messiah, namely  Sir Malcolm Sargent’s Royal Philharmonic Orchestra & Choral Society recording. Messiah of a Thousand. And it’s wonderful. It wouldn’t be wonderful if it existed in place of such recordings as Jacobs’ or McCreesh’s, but neither would it be wonderful to have only the latter and not the former. There’s a lot of heart in it (well, roughly a thousand, I guess ) and it’s a way of playing that concerns itself with ‘having fun’ more than anything else. And if music isn’t that, then it isn’t anything.

But back to your question: I’ve actually been so buried in Mahler this month that I’ve not had the time to look ahead to December yet. I will, though, and then I’ll publish the select morsels of the concert calendar–December in Music–on Classical WETA’s website.

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Thanks so much to Jens for taking the time to do this interview! You can read his work at WETA’s blog and at Ionarts. You can listen to the last remnants of Mahler Month here.