The New Criterion
America’s leading review of the arts and intellectual life
- Harry Mount, the London Telegraph
FeaturesA few weeks ago, I emerged from the concert hall into the night of an English provincial city. Somewhat against the militant philistinism of the times, which contrives to combine the vices of the demotic with those of elitist bureaucratic control, the city still maintains a fine orchestra, rather as evolved creatures retain vestigial organs that were once vital to their animal economy. The second half of the concert was given over to a performance of Das Lied von der Erde, Mahler’s last song cycle, which seems to me perfectly poised between the grandeur and pettiness of human existence, between resignation and protest, ecstasy and misery. It accords well with the mood of one whose intimation of impending cultural catastrophe coincides with his own declining vigor: in short, with the mood of someone like me. There is a lot of pleasure to be had from doom, as Mahler knew, but who can say of Mahler&rsquo ... This article is available to subscribers and for individual purchaseSubscribe to TNC (Print and Online editions) Subscribe to TNC (Online only) This article originally appeared in The New Criterion, Volume 24 June 2006, on page 17 Copyright © 2009 The New Criterion | www.newcriterion.com http://www.newcriterion.com/articles.cfm/Out-of-the-time-machine-2435
rate this article for your user profile
E-mail to friend
|
On Mrs. Woolf & the Servants: An Intimate History of Bloomsbury by Alison Light. A review of Artificial Happiness: The Dark Side of the New Happy Class by Ronald W. Dworkin On the Centre Pompidou's "Creation and Destruction in Twentieth-Century Art." Russia before the mirror: reflections on 1989 On the realities of cultural transformation in Russia.  The New Criterion is now optimized for Mobile Devices 
New from The New Criterion: "Free speech in
EventsNovember 09 2009 YOUNG FRIENDS: Tour of an important contemporary art collection November 24 2009 OPEN EVENT: Laura Jacobs reading December 02 2009 Friends Event: The Swallow Anthology Reading Webcasts
New Criterion-Social Affairs Unit Conference: Part 4
New Criterion-Social Affairs Unit Conference: Part 3
New Criterion-Social Affairs Unit Conference: Part 2 Weblog 
|
add a comment
you must have an account to post a comment. {register now}