Jessye sings Mahler

  

This is Urlicht from Mahler Symphony #2, Resurrection.

Live from the Royal Opera

Today at 11:30 PDT we were treated to a live performance from the Royal Opera House in London.  The photo is of a rehearsal with David Butt Philip, tenor, and Dame Sarah Connolly, mezzo-soprano, preparing Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde.  This is one of my favorite things in the whole world and could simply not be missed. 

The ensemble orchestra was conducted by Antonio Pappano.  The chamber orchestra seemed to include only one instrument per part, including 2 violins, 1 viola, etc.  This seemed to work fine.  In the live performance there was also no audience.

Before the Mahler, Vadim Muntigarov performed a short piece representing the Royal Ballet.  There was a small fee to support the opera house.  I loved it.

Das Lied von der Erde

Anyone would want to sing "Der Abschied."  I used to play it in piano reduction even with my pathetic keyboard skills just for the joy of making this music.  It's one of the great things.  So it isn't hard to understand why Jonas Kaufmann would want to.  Perhaps he reads the idiotic comments where people tell him he's a baritone.  He isn't.

So this is sort of a stunt recording of Mahler's Synphony Das Lied von der Erde (1909).  It is important to remember that the expected voicing is tenor and alto.  I like Janet Baker.

Don't get the wrong idea.  I love Jonas Kaufmann, but I think it is the operatic dramatic tenor Jonas Kaufmann that I most love.  Here we have Jonas in his two most prominent incarnations:  Verdi tenor and pop song crooner.  Alternating.  His renditions of the tenor movements are great.  His renditions of the alto movements aren't.  He isn't a baritone because he doesn't achieve any intensity in the baritone tessitura, and he can't really do the low notes.  Sorry.  It's pleasant but not thrilling.

Die liebe Erde allüberall blüht auf im Lenz und grünt Aufs neu!
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Prom

I am listening to BBC Proms orchestra The Hallé under Mark Elder in Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde with soloists Alice Coote and Gregory Kunde.  I may possibly love this piece more than any opera.  I remember sitting in my living room in Germany and playing it on the piano, even though I'm a terrible pianist.  There's been some work on the orchestration.   This performance is simply wonderful.  Thank you.  There is so much depth of understanding.

  Listen here.

Lorraine

Lieder in Berlin

I went to hear a recital with Heidi Stober at the Deutsche Oper because she and Simon Pauly were performing Lieder by Mahler, Pfitzner, and Wolf, all composers that I enjoy very much.  They know when to clap here.

Someone named Monika Rinck spoke similar but not exactly the same texts between them.  This I have never seen before. They called it Lieder und Dichter.

I have seen Heidi many times in San Francisco and three times in Santa Fe.

I had a fine dinner before at the restaurant at the opera.  I was here at this opera once before in the 70s to see Janis Martin who is not completely forgotten.

Coote does Mahler

This is Alice Coote singing Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen by Mahler at the Royal Albert Hall.

I - "Wenn mein Schatz Hochzeit macht" ("When My Sweetheart is Married")

Resurrection in Sacramento

The Sacramento Philharmonic revival began last night with Gustav Mahler's Second Symphony Resurrection.  The entire season will use guest conductors, and at this first concert we had Andrew Grams, who will work also the concert October 17, 2016.

The concert began with a piece called Concerto Grosso by Ralph Vaughan Williams.  A concerto grosso usually is a piece with a group of soloists who alternate with a larger group of players.  I saw no hint of that in this performance.  The piece is all strings with a section for amateurs who play only open strings.  It didn't rise above pleasant.

But we weren't here for that.  We wanted Mahler 2, and we got it.  This was a dynamic, exciting performance of the piece which established Mahler as a composer.  We were close to the timpani and got the full effect.

A new thing for me happened when a cellist broke a string.  The whole concert paused after the first movement so he could replace it.  My favorite part, of course, is the Urlicht in the 4th movement, here sung beautifully by Kelly O'Connor.  The reception was loud and enthusiastic. 

The revived Sacramento Philharmonic was said to be working from a balanced budget.  This plus the return to standard repertoire is all very welcome.

Composers

Gian Carlo Menotti

Someone posted a hot composers list, so I decided to do one myself.   I've tried not to duplicate any pictures.

Sergei Rachmaninoff

Leonard Bernstein

Johannes Brahms

Franz Liszt

Richard Strauss

Robert Schumann

Antonio Vivaldi

Frederic Chopin

Vicenzo Bellini

Richard Wagner

Kaija Saariaho

Computer generated Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Gustav Mahler

Chatter

Chatter is an odd name for a chamber orchestra, but there you are. Perhaps in Albuquerque this is not odd. They used to be called the Church of Beethoven, but did not wish to be called "The ensemble that used to be called the Church of Beethoven" when they lost rights to the name.

Chatter gave a concert in the Albuquerque Art Museum last night in the same space as a Christo exhibit. When I was in New York for The Gates, I loved it, but Christo as just photographs and drawings is less than spectacular. Maybe it's for nostalgia. It turned out to be an excellent performance space: no echo, easy to hear, not too loud. Even the synthesizer wasn't too loud.

A synthesizer in Mahler 4? We heard it in an arrangement for chamber ensemble done in 2007 by Klaus Simon. This was in turn based on a similar arrangement by Arnold Schoenberg which undoubtedly did not include synthesizer. This arrangement seriously reduces the strings and winds to one player per section. I sat behind the piano and synthesizer.

It was lovely but different. Mahler loves to make interesting sounds with combinations of winds and percussion. The interesting sounds were still there, but the much smaller string section moved the sound ideal from late Romantic closer to the sound ideal of Schoenberg. Transparency of texture is a feature of this style. Synthesizer fills in some of the thinning of texture when it becomes excessive but the wind players predominate. The soprano was Hannah Stephens. I enjoyed the whole performance.

The program notes seemed to be taken as is from Wikipedia, except when they were explaining that Mahler was forbidden by the Nazis, they left out that this was because Mahler was Jewish. It can't have been for anything about the music.

For Mahler's Birthday

My Mahler Soul

I follow my musical loves wherever they may lead me, but despite whatever new loves I may acquire along the way, my deepest musical soul belongs only to the songs of Gustav Mahler.  This recording of Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen IV by Anne Sofie von Otter is simply unbelievably beautiful.  She sings for me.

Christa Ludwig

I have long been a fan of Christa Ludwig, and these are three pieces I love. You simply cannot know how much it means that I would show her singing Brahms. Everything she sings comes from a deeper place.

My heart leaps. Doch. Die Liebe wirt's erreichen. Most rubato in Beethoven I've ever heard.

PS. You know you actually speak German when you think of a saying "doch."

Exquisite

I don't know about you, but I feel much better now. The YouTube comments slam the slow tempo and blame it all on Maazel, the conductor. My sense of this is that the tempo comes from Battle. Would her interpretation be so divine at the normal tempo? I think not. One should not sit in front of ones computer and imagine that the singer has nothing to say about the performance.

You might like this one, too, at the more normal tempo with Christine Schäfer.

Just Listen

These come and go.  This one is 1999 with Chailly.

Der Abschied. The final movement of Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde. Brought to you by the earth herself.

Der Abschied

Die Sonne scheidet hinter dem Gebirge.
In alle Täler steigt der Abend nieder
Mit seinen Schatten, die voll Kühlung sind.
O sieh! Wie eine Silberbarke schwebt
Der Mond am blauen Himmelssee herauf.
Ich spüre eines feinen Windes Wehn
Hinter den dunklen Fichten!

Der Bach singt voller Wohllaut durch das Dunkel.
Die Blumen blassen im Dämmerschein.
Die Erde atmet voll von Ruh und Schlaf,
Alle Sehnsucht will nun träumen.
Die müden Menschen gehn heimwärts,
Um im Schlaf vergessnes Glück
Und Jugend neu zu lernen!
Die Vögel hocken still in ihren Zweigen.
Die Welt schläft ein!

Es wehet kühl im Schatten meiner Fichten.
Ich stehe hier und harre meines Freundes;
Ich harre sein zum letzten Lebewohl.
Ich sehne mich, o Freund, an deiner Seite
Die Schönheit dieses Abends zu genießen.
Wo bleibst du? Du lässt mich lang allein!
Ich wandle auf und nieder mit meiner Laute
Auf Wegen, die vom weichen Grase schwellen.
O Schönheit! O ewigen Liebens, Lebens trunkne Welt!

Er stieg vom Pferd und reichte ihm den Trunk
Des Abschieds dar. Er fragte ihn, wohin
Er führe und auch warum es müsste sein.
Er sprach, seine Stimme war umflort:

"Du, mein Freund,
Mir war auf dieser Welt das Glück nicht hold!
Wohin ich geh? Ich geh, ich wandre in die Berge.
Ich suche Ruhe für mein einsam Herz.
Ich wandle nach der Heimat, meiner Stätte.
Ich werde niemals in die Ferne schweifen.
Still ist mein Herz und harret seiner Stunde!

Die liebe Erde allüberall
Blüht auf im Lenz und grünt
Aufs neu! Allüberall und ewig
Blauen licht die Fernen!
Ewig... ewig..."

The Farewell

The sun goes down behind the mountain,
Into all the valleys the evening descends
And brings cooling shades.
O see! Like a silver bark
The moon floats up the blue lake of heaven.
I feel a gentle breeze stirring
Behind the dark spruce.

The brook sings melodiously through the darkness.
The flowers grow pale in the gloaming.
The earth is breathing, full of peace and sleep.
All longing now turns into dreams.
Tired men make for home,
In sleep to recapture forgotten happiness
And youth!
The birds hold still in the branches.
The world is falling asleep.

A cool wind blows in the shadow of the spruce.
I stand here waiting for my friend;
I wait to bid him a last farewell.
I long, my friend, at your side
To enjoy the beauty of this evening.
Where do you linger? You have left me alone for so long!
I wander up and down with my lute
On paths soft with swelling grass.
O beauty! O deep love, so drunk with life!

He dismounted his horse and proffered
the parting glass. I asked him where
He was going and why it had to be.
He said, voice trembling:

"O my friend,
In this world fortune was hard on me.
Where I am going? I am going to wander into the mountains.
I seek peace for my lonely heart.
I am making for home, for my resting place.
I will never roam into strange lands.
My heart is still and awaits its hour.

The dear earth everywhere
Blossoms in spring and grows green
Anew! Everywhere, forever,
Blue lights the horizon!
Forever... forever... "

Contraltos, whoever you are, listen only to Ewa Podleś. There is a deep mystery to her voice that I have never heard in any other artist. She is a magnificent bass clarinet, a sound like no other. And here she is in the most deeply mysterious piece ever written. How could such sad words achieve such ecstasy?

Previously my favorite has been Janet Baker in this piece. Janet is wonderful, but she is a bit too much in her head, if you know what I mean.

And the audio is so good. How is this even possible in a live performance? I can die now.

I must

Please forgive me for I must post this. It is a more modern sensibility for the "Urlicht." It is the divine and immortal Lorraine Hunt Lieberson with MTT and the San Francisco Symphony. There are performances one wishes one had attended.

"O red rose! Here we are in greatest need! Here we are in greatest pain! O were I better in heaven! There I came upon a broad, fair path, then there came a little angel who would turn me away. Ah, no, I would not be turned away. I am of God, and will return to God, for our loving God will give me light for seeing, which will light me into that eternal, blissful life!"

No offense to Maureen.

Maureen Forrester (25 July 1930 – 16 June 2010)

Maureen Forrester 1930-2010. In my youth she was the voice of Mahler. This is "Urlicht," the fourth movement of Gustav Mahler's Symphony no 2.

One song does not seem like enough.

Christa Ludwig

My favorite Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde with Leonard Bernstein and the incomparable Christa Ludwig.
Der Einsame im Herbst

Von der Schoenheit


Abschied part I

part II

part III


For the tenor parts you can't beat the already posted versions by Jonas Kaufmann.

Mahler Festival

I went to the lecture before the concert of Rückert Lieder and Symphony No. 1 that begins the Mahler Festival at the San Francisco Symphony, and the young woman lecturer speaking to a crowd of mostly old people said she was going to play a "very old recording" by Christa Ludwig. Huh? Old is all in your point of view.

Michael Tilson Thomas understands his Mahler. I'm not sure I do. Susan Graham sang a very fine set of the Rückert Lieder. This part of the concert was being recorded. They scrambled the order so both of the sad songs came at the end. "Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen" is probably Mahler's finest song, and they performed it beautifully. I think I prefer the set to end with this instead of "Um Mitternacht."

The audience loved Symphony Number 1. People around me raved that it was the best performance of Number 1 ever. The crowd stood and shouted like they were at a football game. I probably had never heard it before and thought it was a piece of crap. Don't get me wrong. I like Mahler and I think Tilson Thomas is a great conductor of him. It's a bit too episodic for me. Does that explain it?

Jonas Kaufmann sings Mahler

This is what I tried to fly to Cleveland to hear last winter. Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde. One of my favorite things.


First movement. "Das Trinklied vom Jammer der Erde".  Click on this.  It will work.


Third movement. "Von der Jugend"


Fifth movement. "Der Trunkene im Fruhling" Notes have been added. This is the performance I missed.

He is so perfect. Of course, the best movements are for mezzo.