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Double Bass how do you play those scales in Mahler 3?

F

fergus currie

Mar 30, 2009
413
9
Athens Greece
www.myspace.com
#1
I've been called out of the mothballs to play in a performance of Malher's 3rd Symphony and I'd like some ideas from experienced players on how they takle the timing aspect of those crazy scales in the first movement. I personally will wait for the last possible momment and scrub like mad with the top not as a rythmic target. I'll see what happens in the first rehearsal a week on Monday which will be my first classical concert in over a year and my second one in almost 4!!
Isn't retirement grand!
FC
 
#3
Dear Fergus,
I did not reply because I have never played Mahler 3, but I have the part in front of me and I'd be happy to share my thoughts. As for the scales in the first page, I would say play them very slowly with a good sound on each note. Make sure you have your bowings marked, so you can land with a downbow on the whole notes. Do them very slowly every day, and at the first rehearsal, they will fall easily into place. As for figure 43, if I were playing this, I would stay in the lower positions. I don't have a low C, so I would take the low Dbs in the 7th bar of 43 up an octave. I hope you enjoy the first rehearsal next week.
 
#4
You probably haven't gotten too many responses as this a rarely performed piece, especially in these economic times. You are lucky to have the opportunity to be part of it. I haven't played this piece but I did attend a performance by the combined forces of Orchestra London Canada and the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony.

If you listen to this video, at 2:10 the runs on the first page start.

If I were playing this, I'd practice the run slowly a few times and in rehearsal/performance, would just start on the 4th beat (or just after) and make the mad scramble to the resolution note on the first beat of the next bar. It's the important note anyway. The runs after reh 6, I'd leave out the low-D of the run and start on the low-E just after the fourth beat. No one will be able to hear the difference, especially if there are 8 of you scrubbing this line, and you won't smash your hand trying to run up the extension (if you have one that is). Same goes for the runs around reh 30.

The other difficult passages are more important and thematic (like 43, 46 and 62) and would have more of a priority of practice time.

Tell us about the performance. Will it be in an ancient amphitheater?
 
#5
Thanks for the feed back on the scales etc. Very welcome as always. I've set up my computer to play the sections where the ifficult passages are and 'loop' them over and over. Before I start on that though I have steady, slow practice with the metronome building up to the speed on the record I have (Abbado BPO - 1999 The best I've got!).
I also had a good look at the score and the 'mad dash' scales have easy to grab horn cues so it's not a problem timing the start (ecept for the first couple which are 'blind' so I will just have to wait for the rehearsal to see who follows who. (conductor, 1st cello, 1st bass, nobody(!!))

As I said I have a nice fingering for the passages at 43 and 46 which I might manage to video and upload to Youtube. As for the low notes, I have a nice 5 stringer which covers everything.

I think the concert is in the Megaron in Athens which is a modern concert hall. It would be nice to play this in a huge ancient amphitheater though!

Cheers
FC
 
#6
So one week after the rehearsals began and we've played the 1st movement twice at the most. The conductor is trying to get the fiddles to sound good in the 2nd and 3rd movements. I'm having a super time being back in the saddle even if I'm sitting on the third desk! (I do cough up if there is a bowing problem or if I see someone about to do a domino, though.) Nice to be involved in the symphony orchestra again after so long...
FC
 

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