A Mahler moment
For a 70-minute Austrian symphony first performed more than a century ago, Mahler’s Fifth makes a surprisingly strong case for itself as the song of the season, Louis Lucero II reports for The Times.
The symphony, which plays a central role in the new Cate Blanchett drama, “Tár,” may not appear in the Billboard Hot 100 or as a viral TikTok sound. But Mahler’s Fifth is nonetheless finding its way onto the strolling, cleaning and cooking playlists of listeners who might otherwise be more inclined toward Adele, OneRepublic or Beyoncé.
“Tár” is not the only film in which you might hear the symphony this year. Its fourth movement also has a star turn in “Decision to Leave,” a fast-paced detective thriller by the South Korean director Park Chan-wook.
Pieces of classical music breaking into pop culture is by now a familiar tale: Works by Beethoven and Pachelbel became widely popular in the 1970s and 1980s after appearing (in one form or another) in “Ordinary People” and the “Saturday Night Fever” soundtrack.