At age 21, in his second week with The Cleveland Orchestra, Principal Horn Nathaniel Silberschlag played Mahler’s 5th for a packed house, exceeding expectations. Even his own.
At age 21, in his second week with The Cleveland Orchestra, Principal Horn Nathaniel Silberschlag played Mahler’s 5th for a packed house, exceeding expectations. Even his own.
Featured Music:
MAHLER - Symphony No. 5
3. Scherzo
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In difficult situations or moments of sheer joy, music connects us with our humanity. At age twenty-one, in his second week with The Cleveland Orchestra, Principal Horn Nathaniel Silberschlag stood in front of the Orchestra as a featured soloist in Mahler’s Fifth Symphony.
This is Nathaniel Silberschlag, Principal Horn of The Cleveland Orchestra. Today we’ll be listening to an exceptional piece of music — Mahler’s Fifth Symphony.
I come from a long line of professional musicians. My father, my brother, my mother, I think, in fact, we total 17 professional musicians, so music has really always been in the blood and in the tradition of my family. Growing up, I always went around to my parents saying, “My dream, I want to be a principal horn of a major symphony orchestra and I want to be centerfield of the Yankees.” I lost the Yankee dream after I dislocated my knee, but the principal horn dream stuck with me.
To win this position with The Cleveland Orchestra, I know it does sound cliché, but it truly was a dream come true. Coming from a family of musicians, and especially a family of orchestral musicians, this is the top of the line, this is the peak. I think honestly for months after I won the position, it was surreal to me. It didn’t even kick in maybe until Mahler Five.
In prepping for all things — for the audition, for especially Mahler Five — positive visualization is such a huge tool for me. I use it probably almost every day. It’s the thought of putting yourself into a sort of meditative state and really thinking about all the positive things and things that are going well; winning the job, doing the job, doing the job well. Really, once you pound your brain with positive thoughts over and over again, the hope is that you keep the negative thoughts out.
In leading up to the Mahler Five, obviously, you prep practicing the music. But one of the most important things for me was visualizing my walk upstage from the second movement to the third movement and then also being at the front of the stage. Literally, I reserved Severance Hall stage a few times in the evening to make sure I was really the only one there and not only play the music at the front of the stage, but visualize everything that was going to happen on the day. And I think that was huge for performance day because I wasn’t surprised by it. If a trapeze artist is surprised that the bar is swinging towards them, it’s a little too late.
And the energy in the hall that night was electric. It sounds odd, but I felt the support. I think I felt everyone wishing me well, everyone in that hall that night and it was an incredible feeling that translated really making it easy for me just to enjoy making music with my colleagues.
To sit on stage with my colleagues, to feel the support from all these people that I looked up to, it’s an incredible feeling and I felt them all with me. I felt everyone sending me good thoughts during the Mahler performances. Probably all my friends and family knew about it. They knew when it was, they knew when I was going to be warming up for it — so everyone was there with me and I felt it.
At the end of the piece, during the applause, Franz turned to the Orchestra to give solo bows, giving note to the performers with exposed passages during the Mahler. I was given first solo bow, which was already a great honor.
After myself, our principal trumpet, Michael Sachs, was acknowledged for his outstanding performance with his solo bow. But then something happened that personally I have never seen and I think it’s actually quite a rarity to see such generosity and kindness. During Michael’s solo bow, he came over to my chair and sort of raised my hand up in a sort of victory and put the spotlight back on me.
After every performance and especially after a performance in a new orchestra, no matter how good or bad you play, you are always going to be wondering if it was good enough. It felt like the sort of the perfect end to my introduction to the Orchestra, to be affirmed by one of the most important members of the institution in that instant, is really a moment I will never forget.
Immediately following the performance I booked it out to the Opus Lounge really just to find a couple of friends that I knew were there, and I get to the Opus Lounge and I’m basically hoarded by a mass of just apparently fans, I guess. And that was definitely a new moment for me.
It was so nice to see the people in the audience that I could feel sending me positive vibes, that connection with the audience was something special for me and something that I didn’t exactly know was there until that night.
After our two Severance Hall performances of Mahler Five, I think we had maybe two, three days off. And then we took it straight to Carnegie Hall. We opened Carnegie Hall season with their gala. It was a Beethoven program with Der Rosenkavalier Suite by Strauss. It was no slouch the night before. And not to mention, we got to New York and I felt incredibly ill.
I was just a recent graduate of Julliard so all my friends, all my teachers, they’re all still there. My family, much of my family actually is from New York City, so my entire family was coming to that performance. Everyone I knew, basically, really everyone, my whole Kennedy Center horn section was going to be there. Really, I think almost everyone I knew was going to be at that Mahler Five.
And I guess you could say that it added some pressure, obviously, as with any big performance. But for me it also definitely enhanced the experience knowing I got to share that moment with so many people I know and love, made it just that even that more special for me.
Physically, the Carnegie Hall performance was probably the hardest Mahler Five that I had done. It was harder to get into the enjoyment aspect and enjoyment of the music and enjoyment of the collaboration because really I just felt bad. I just did not feel good. It was kind of hard to breathe. This was all pre-COVID, but who knows.
It was a different type of monster, the Carnegie performance. I was hopped up on all sorts of DayQuil, so it was: This is big, but in a sense, I have to get the job done — and I think I did. I think it actually went very well. I just had to start listening to the music more and more. Turn the volume up of the Orchestra in my head and the illness thoughts out. It was hard. It was a battle.
The reception after the Carnegie performance was pretty fun and pretty heartwarming. Michael Sachs once again turned the spotlight on me in Carnegie Hall, raised my hand in victory to all of New York City. Again, in a different moment, in a different way, it was super, super special.
Walking out of the Carnegie stage door to the masses was even newer than my reception in the Opus Lounge at Severance Hall. I think there might’ve been more people outside of the Carnegie stage door, but also the fact that it was literally just immediately outside the street on New York City was weird. That you would have all these people congratulating me and just over the moon about the performance and then you’d have someone trying to throw a hot dog at us.
I’ve wanted to play all these masterworks of classical music my whole life in the principal horn chair. And I think after the initial pressure and jitters start to go away, you’re just excited. I have this incredible privilege to play with one of the world’s greatest orchestras, to play the music that I love, day in, day out. I think more than focusing on the pressure, I try to focus on the enjoyment of it all.
In my 21-year-old life, the Severance Hall Mahler Five performance was a definitive moment and I think will always be a definitive moment for me in my career and my life. I think probably in that moment of walking between the second movement and the third movement was really, I think, my realization, well, okay, I am principal horn of The Cleveland Orchestra. Let’s do this.
That was Nathaniel Silberschlag with Mahler’s Fifth Symphony, recorded live in 2019; a piece Nathaniel has always known and will never forget. You can experience his remarkable performance of the third movement coming up shortly. And if you're enjoying On a Personal Note, please subscribe, rate, and review us. More episodes are available at clevelandorchestra.com/podcast.