I’ve recently watched a few of the videos available on YouTube of Bernstein conducting Mahler. He really lives through this music. It’s phenomenal. It’s during the triumphant moments — the final minute-long chord of the 3rd symphony, or the unexpected modulation back to the home key midway through the finale of the 1st symphony — that Bernstein first draws my attention. Bernstein literally jumps up sometimes and starts singing along (well, his lips are moving). He seems as though having overcome a major struggle.

I particularly enjoy watching Bernstein during those combinatory moments of acceptance/heartbreak that are perhaps the most poignant features of Mahler’s music. These moments build to a culmination in the finale of the 9th symphony, but are always present, even in the 1st symphony (written 30 years apart). These moments penetrate to the depths of the human condition, toward unanswered and still-applicable questions — or at the least I have felt these same questions tearing at me — I guess this is what it means to “like Mahler.” They are moments with which I have on many occasions shared a strong connection, and even now feel overwhelmed at considering their arc, and so perhaps it’s a relief to watch someone openly share that connection.