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Mini-Mahler

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The starting point for Auricle’s Mini-Mahler project was the Society for Private Musical Performance (Verein fur Musikalische Privatauffuhrungen) established in post-war Vienna. Created in 1918, it was the brainchild of composer Arnold Schoenberg who was tired of the conservative and stifling criticism of new music by critics and audiences. He sought to create an environment where music could be carefully rehearsed and then performed in front of genuinely interested members. Clarity and comprehensibility were the aims of the society and Schoenberg would personally rehearse the gifted young musicians. Many large scale works, performances of which would be unthinkable in the financial climate of post-war Vienna, were meticulously prepared and arranged for reduced ensemble or piano duo with more complex works often repeated in the same program.

Though performances of Mahler’s largest works are by no means rare today, these ’Verein’ reductions of Mahler’s works have endured, indeed, there are many modern attempts at reducing his work for chamber ensemble. These arrangements seem to make more legible his compositional intent, by clarifying lines and reducing the music to its bare essence. In that sense, they are still important in making the music of Mahler more accessible through entirely new performance contexts.

The ensemble is formed around a basic group of string quintet, piano and harmonium with the addition of various wind soloists. Since 2010, Auricle has performed most of the available Mahler reductions and the available works. Works with voice are performed in German with live surtitling at no extra charge.



Selected Previous Performances

Edinburgh Festival
Tolbooth Stirling
St Bride's at 7
Oran Mor, Glasgow
Glasgow West End Festival


Sample Programmes

Mini-Mahler 1


Fourth Symphony and Debussy

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Programme
  1. Claude Debussy
    Prélude à L’après midi d’un faune arr. Benno Sachs
  2. Gustav Mahler
    Lieder eines fahrenden gesellen, arranged for soprano and chamber ensemble
  3. Gustav Mahler
    Symphony no. 4 in G major arranged for soprano and chamber ensemble

A chance to hear Mahler's Fourth Symphony accompanied by Debussy's tranquil masterpiece 'Prélude à L'après midi d'un faune'.

Featuring sopranos Alexa Mason / Una McMahon

Mini-Mahler 2


Britten & Mahler

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Programme
  1. Gustav Mahler
    Piano Quartet
  2. Gustav Mahler
    Kindertotenlieder, Arr. Rainer Riehn
  3. Benjamin Britten
    Sinfonietta

Rainer Riehn's initmate reduction of the Kindertotenlider gives a new perspective to Mahler's work, with Britten's youthful Sinfonietta and Mahler's early work for Piano Quartet completing the concert.

Mini-Mahler 3


Wayfarers - Mahler & Maxwell Davies

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Programme
  1. Claude Debussy
    Prélude à L’après midi d’un faune arr. Benno Sachs
  2. Peter Maxwell Davies
    Runes from a Holy Island
  3. Gustav Mahler
    Lieder eines fahrenden gesellen, arr. Arnold Schoenberg

Songs of Mahler's wandering wayfarer feature alongside Maxwell Davies beautiful and introspective trip around the island of Hoy.

Alexa Mason
Cumbrian soprano Alexa trained at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, before taking part in English National Opera's OperaWorks programme. Subsequent cover roles at ENO include First Squire/Flowermaiden 'Parsifal', Susanna 'The Marriage of Figaro' and Iris Marinus in the premiere of Van der Aa’s 'Sunken Garden', with principal roles in Glass' 'Akhnaten' (2016) 'Jakob Lenz' (2012) and the world premiere of Joanna Lee’s 'The Way Back Home', directed by Katie Mitchell at The Young Vic in December 2014. Other opera roles performed include Clorinda 'Cenerentola' and Gretel 'Hansel & Gretel' for HighTime Opera in 2015 and 2016, Ortlinde 'Die Walküre' and Wellgunde 'Das Rheingold/Götterdämmerung' for Fulham Opera, Zerlina 'Don Giovanni', Tina 'Flight', and Eurydice 'Orfeo ed Eurydice', as well as a concert performance of Zdenka in Strauss' 'Arabella' for Fulham Opera in 2016. Alexa’s concert work with The Auricle Ensemble has seen her tour Scotland with contemporary chamber works such as Schoenberg’s seminal work 'Pierrot Lunaire' and Maxwell Davies’ 'Miss Donnithorne’s Maggot', as well as programmes of diverse Cabaret songs, Mahler works, and a performance of Polly Peachum in Weill’s 'The Threepenny Opera'. Her soprano/clarinet/piano chamber trio Tenacious T’Weed also perform throughout Scotland. Alexa was soloist for the first live performance of the Philip Glass/Ravi Shankar album 'Passages' at the 2017 BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall, London. She also recently created the role of Dawn in Nico Muhly's new opera 'Marnie', at ENO in November 2017. alexamason.com

Úna McMahon
Mezzo soprano Úna studied at the Royal Irish Academy of Music (RIAM), before completing her masters training at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (RSAMD). On the concert platform Úna has performed in Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, St John Passion, and Magnificat, Handel’s Messiah, Saint-Saens Oratorio de Noel, Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, Haydn’s Paukenmesse, Mahler’s 2nd Symphony, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Mozart’s Requiem, Mass in C, and Spatzenmesse, Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater and Szymanowski’s Stabat Mater. Her operatic roles include, Amore (L’incoronazione di Poppea), Dorothee (Cendrillon), cover of Stewardess (Flight), cover of Nancy (Albert Herring), Olga (Eugene Onegin), and Dorabella (Cosi fan Tutte), Rosina (Il Barbiere di Siviglia), La Maestra delle Novizie (Suor Angelica) and the title role in La Cenerentola. Una has toured with the National Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Company performing the roles of Tessa (The Gondoliers), and Peep-Bo (The Mikado). She also premiered Laura Bowler’s solo work 'Women Conduct' at the Tête à Tête festival, London. Úna’s work with the Auricle Ensemble has seen her perform the solo in Mahler’s Fourth Symphony, the Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, Kindertotenlieder and take on the role of Jenny Diver in The Threepenny Opera. Úna has worked with the chorus of Scottish Opera, Glyndebourne Festival Opera and covered the role of Margarida for the Glyndebourne on Tour production of Julian Philips’ The Yellow Sofa.