Titan

Nicknames for musical works often stick. In an early version, Gustav Mahler once called his First Symphony Titan after the novel of the same name by the Romantic poet Jean Paul. He later withdrew this name. The literary influences in his First were too diverse, as were the folk music quotations and inspirations, even from the visual arts. As he later put it in another context, Mahler intended to depict an ‘entire world’ with his first symphony. A truly titanic ambition. Daedalus and Icarus also sought to transcend human limits, flying towards the sun on their wax wings. Geoffrey Gordon’s new clarinet concerto Icarus follows this legendary flight to great heights – and subsequent fall. In Salt, his ‹Bonus Track›, Gordon also depicts Daedalus' much less well-known warning to his son not to get too close to the salty waves.