CXXII. MAHLER, Gustav (1860-1911)
Das Lied von der Erde (1908-09)
1. Das Trinklied vom Jammer der Erde (The Drinking Song of Earth's Sorrow)
2. Der Einsame im Herbst (The Solitary One in Autumn)
3. Von der Jugend (Of Youth)
4. Von der Schönheit (Of Beauty)
5. Der Trunkene im Frühling (The Drunkard in Spring)
6. Der Abschied (The Farewell)
Christa Ludwig, mezzo-soprano
René Kollo, tenor
Israel Philharmonic Orchestra
Leonard Bernstein, cond.
(1:04:30)
The summer of 1907. Disasters.
Politics and antisemitism force Mahler to resign from his beloved directorship of the Vienna Court Opera.
His eldest daughter, Maria, dies from scarlet fever.
Mahler is diagnosed with a congenital heart defect.
And scariest of all -- his next symphony would be Number Nine. He was not unaware of the jinx. No one since Beethoven had completed a Tenth.
Aha. I'll fool mother nature and write a symphony without calling it as such!
Thus is born a "symphony for Tenor, Alto (or Baritone) and Orchestra." No number.
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Das Lied is symphonic in every other sense, however. It is great and grand and suffused with all of Mahler's experiences of a lifetime.
The immediate source of the texts was the then newly published Hans Bethge's Die chinesische Flöte. These poems were freely adapted from earlier German and French sources -- but the original dates back to the work of Li Bai (701-762), the "wandering poet" of the Tang Dynasty.
A few of the poems come from other Tang Dynasty poets, and Mahler himself added his own text to the final movement.
The texts of the German, English -- and even the Chinese originals -- are found
here.
The video includes subtitles.
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I. Das Trinklied vom Jammer der Erde
Look at this massive orchestration! Mahler gives the tenor a big introduction.
II. Der Einsame im Herbst
Things calm down for the alto's first solo:
III. Von der Jugend.
Pentatonic and sort of faux-Asian!
This movement is mostly soft and soothing ("young girls picking lotus flowers at the riverbank") ... later, the brass infers men arriving on horseback, as the beautiful maidens flirt with the men.
V. Der Trunkene im Frühling
Mahler goes all over various harmonic territory, again describing the joys of drinking. Mahler decorates the text about birds with solo violin and flute.
VI. Der Abschied
The final movement is nearly as long as the previous five combined!
Mahler divides the movement into three major sections, each musically portraying the feeling of the poem -- all about saying farewell!
Below are the final 64 bars, where the singer repeats the word "ewig" (forever) over and over again. The music sighs and dies a soft, magnificent death.
The celesta and harps decorate the stillness with soft arpeggios. Some of the most beautiful music ever written:
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