PRESS“Draws listeners into a composer's world by enfolding the music within a presentation of drama, projections and narration… Analyze This: Mahler and Freud, an imagined dramatization of a four-hour meeting and psychoanalytic session between the two titans the year before Mahler died in 1911. Freud made no notes of the session, and there are only indirect and cryptic mentions in a few letters of Mahler and his wife, Alma. Thus, dramatist Didi Balle had a blank canvas upon which to paint. As an exercise in drawing listeners deeper into a composer's world and engendering increased interest, the program is well thought out and worthwhile.”
- Robert Battey, The Washington Post Nov. 11, 2010 “A sizable, age-diverse crowd turned out Saturday night at Meyerhoff Hall for the premiere and were genuinely taken with it. With good reason: the limitations and pitfalls of mixing dialogue and orchestral excerpts were overcome. Didi Balle, who co-created the show with BSO music director Marin Alsop, wrote a colorful script that imparted a lot of information without ever getting talky, and she directed the action with a fine sense of pacing. The non-traditional concert format was persuasive and engaging. With the musical selections neatly complementing the dialogue (and Alsop's occasional commentary), Analyze This: Mahler and Freud fulfilled its mission of shedding light on the personal side of Mahler, making him and his art seem all the more real and immediate. There was a palpable sense of connection between stage and hall Saturday night -- and you can't overestimate the value of that.” - Tim Smith, Baltimore Sun Nov. 9, 2010 |