David Briggs on transcribing Mahler 2 for the organ.

David Briggs transcribes and plays Mahler’s Second Symphony on the Grand Organ of St Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney, featuring the St Mary’s Singers. 

Several important ingredients go into both the making and the performance of successful organ transcriptions. I always start from the full orchestral score and not a piano reduction. It’s perhaps surprising that, with Mahler’s symphonies, it’s not necessary to reduce too much, or to leave too much out. If you look at the sketches, things are often quite clear (and written for piano over three staves). The magic with Mahler comes, of course, from the subtlety of the orchestral color, but with modern organ console technology and a degree of imagination it’s possible to replicate (or more accurately translate) this in a new medium. It’s important, too, not to make the transcription unplayable… I tend to find ways, through octave transpositions, reorganising of the voicing of the harmony, and so on, to make the music lie well under the hands and both feet. Processing each note is a very time-consuming (and rather therapeutic) exercise – each bar requires a large amount of thought and this is a perfect way to get to know a score very intimately.

The organist, of course, has four main advantages over the pianist, when it comes to performing orchestral transcriptions: (a) the ability to incorporate either single or double pedal parts; (b) more expressive potential through registrational color and swell boxes; (c) more possibility for sustaining intense orchestral crescendi; and (d) very often performing in great cathedrals, where the acoustic and aesthetic ambience can add so much to the emotional impact of this music. Playing the last movement of Mahler 3 at York Minster a while back, the effect of that matchless building on the music was breathtaking.

In making the transcriptions, I’m quite disciplined about including the composers’ original intentions for phrasing, articulations, and dynamic parameters. More than that, though, I leave to the integrity and free will of the performer… From the performance point of view, I always endeavor to adopt a registration scheme that has as much color and vivacity as the orchestra, but not necessarily the same explicit colors. There are certain instruments we just don’t have, but I think with care it’s possible to create registrations that have the same emotional ambience, clarity, and contrast… You try and imagine what Mahler would say if he were standing over your shoulder. My profound hope is that people will enjoy playing and hearing these recastings of Mahler’s originals, rather like seeing great paintings in a new art gallery, in a different frame under completely new lighting conditions. This is highly charged, emotional music that shows Mahler’s complete genius for creating a highly original soundscape, which is instantly recognizable and completely inimitable.

David Briggs performs his transcription of Mahler 2, 7.30pm Saturday July 18 at St Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney

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