Hello, I'm Mindy Kaufman piccolo and flutist with the New York Philharmonic.
Mahler's Symphony No. 2, Resurrection is an incredibly powerful piece.
Mahler asks the question: "Why did you live?
Why did you suffer? Has it all been a huge frightful joke?"
He gives this answer in the last movement.
Mahler writes that the finale starts with the cry of dying.
Soon there follows the sound of offstage brass and an emptiness.
The music sounds bleak. The offstage brass is reminiscent of the shofar,
the Jewish ram's horn that is played on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.
Even though Mahler converted to Christianity he still incorporated Jewish folk music.
After the offstage brass is played, a lone piccolo plays sounding a bird call, but it's a death call.
It's a powerful moment in the symphony. The piccolo is the only
instrument on stage that is playing, followed by the flute.
Both parts are woven together with the offstage brass.
The piccolo, which can be very piercing,
can also have a very childlike and lonely sound. And this is the sound that
Mahler used at this poignant moment in the symphony.