Ghost Story : Der Schildwache Nachtlied

Another ghost story from the Des Knaben Wunderhorn collection of Brentano and Arnim in the version adapted by Mahler for his song Der Schildwache Nachtlied.  The sentry is determined to do his duty because so many depend on his vigilance.  But he hears a mysterious voice :
 "Ich kann und mag nicht fröhlich sein;
Wenn alle Leute schlafen,
So muß ich wachen,
Muß traurig sein."

"Ach Knabe, du sollst nicht traurig sein,
Will deiner warten,
Im Rosengarten,
Im grünen Klee."

"Zum grünen Klee, da komm ich nicht,
zum Waffengarten
Voll Helleparten
Bin ich gestellt."

"Stehst du im Feld, so helf dir Gott,
An Gottes Segen
Ist alles gelegen,
Wer's glauben tut."

"Wer's glauben tut, ist weit davon,
Er ist ein König,
Er ist ein Kaiser,
Er führt den Krieg."

What's happening ? The sentry's doing his job even though he's not too happy about it. So what is this voice he's hearing ?  Is it a ghost, a memory or his subconscious? He's stuck in the "Garden of Weapons" and must deny the "Rose Garden" and the meadow of green clover, which might symbolize home, or freedom. The voice reminds him, though, that the Kaiser isn't all-powerful.  In the battlefield, anything can happen : only God decides.  But the sentry tries to blank out alternatives. Three times he repeats what controls him : King, Emperor, war.  Notice how Mahler uses major and minor to contrastb the voices, underlining the "military" with drumbeats and horns.But suddenly, something happens. Is the sentry confronted by an enemy ?  Or is the voice an expression of his subconcious longing for freedom ?  
Halt! Wer da? Rund! Bleib' mir vom Leib! 

Then a brief interlude.

"Wer sang es hier? Wer sang zur Stund'?
Verlorne Feldwacht
Sang es um Mitternacht.
Mitternacht! Feldwacht!"

Whatever has happened, the sentry is no longer among the living. He's gone.  As so often in Mahler, being dead isn't the end. What's left of the sentry is his ghostly song, echoing his worldly orders "Midnight ! Sentry! "

Earliest Mahler songs - Winterlied

photo : Roger Thomas

It's still winter and the skies are overcast. But look to  the trees, where the buds are forming, which will soon unfurl as leaves.  So to Winterlied, one of Mahler's Drei Lieder (Im Lenz, Winterlied and Maitanz im Grunen) from 27th February 1880. Winterlied is not a Wunderhorn song.  Just as he was to do with Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, Mahler wrote the text himself and dedicated the song and its companion, Im Lenz, to  Josephine Poisl, who lived in his hometown Iglau. He sent her flowers, but she wasn't too pleased. Soon after, she married another homeboy.  Mahler went on to Vienna, and to fame.  Though the songs (unpublished in Mahler's lifetime) aren't very sophisticated, they aren't bad for someone so young.  Besides, they were written at the same time as Mahler's first truly significant work, Das klagende Lied.

manuscript - click to enlarge

Über Berg und Tal
Mit lautem Schall 

Tönet ein Liedchen. 

Durch Schnee und Eis
Dringt es so heiß 

Bis zu dem Hüttchen. 

Wo das Feuer brummt,
Wo das Rädchen summt 

Im traulichen Stübchen. 

Um den Tisch herum
Sitzen sie stumm. 

Hörst du mich, Liebchen? 

Im kalten Schnee,
Sieh! wie ich steh',

Sing' zu Dir, Mädchen! 

Hat denn mein Lied
So dich erglüht
Oder das Rädchen? 

O liebliche Zeit
Wie bist du so weit! 

O selige Stunden!
Ach nur ein Blick
War unser Glück.
Ewig verschwunden! 

 

Thoughts are Free ! Mahler Lied des Verfolgten im Turm

"Die Gedanken sind frei!", the rallying cry of the Romantic revolution !   The text was first written dowen in the 12th century by the troubador poet Walter von Wogelweide (whose artistic descendant is Walter von Stolzing). There are other variants from around the same period, suggesting that the song was already part of oral tradition, spread presumably by students, travellers, and journeying Gesellen.  Notations were made and published later, from the 18th and early 19th century.  A true "folk" song, which fitted well with the spirit of Romanticism and its values of identity, individualism and love of Nature.  Please read my several pieces on the Lützower Freikorps and the poets and composers inspired by them HERE HEREand HERE   Effectively just about everyone, from Goethe to Beethoven, to Schubert, Weber and Mendelssohn and beyond.  And in very different ways, their heirs Wagner, Brahms and Mahler.  

Mahler's song Lied des Verfolgten im Turm quotes Die Gedanken sind Frei word for word, and also uses the same tune. Whether there's any documentary evidence, he almost certainly would have known the soing. The connections inescapable :

"Die Gedanken sind frei, wer kann sie erraten,
sie fliegen vorbei wie nächtliche Schatten.
Kein Mensch kann sie wissen, kein Jäger erschießen
mit Pulver und Blei: Die Gedanken sind frei! "
"Und sperrt man mich ein im finsteren Kerker 
das alles sind rein vergebliche Werke.
Denn meine Gedanken zerreißen die Schranken
und Mauern entzwei: Die Gedanken sind frei!"
 
Mahler used a variant text as published in the volume Des Knaben Wunderhorn, published by Clemens Brentano and Achim von Arnim in 1806, which tidies up the folksy background, as was so often the case in the 19th century.  In 1806, you could still end up as Florestan.  In the original version, the mood is subjective, the protagonist imagining himself in prison.  In Brentano and Arnim, the mood is direct : the protagonist is safely incarcerated, identified as "The Prisoner". In the original, there is a verse in which the singer refers to one form of escapism : girlfriends and alcohol.

"Ich liebe den Wein, mein Mädchen vor allen,
sie tut mir allein am besten gefallen.
Ich sitz nicht alleine bei meinem Glas Weine,
mein Mädchen dabei: Die Gedanken sind frei!"

Brentano and von Arnim modify this earthy humour by dividing the text into two parts, one for the Prisoner, the other for the Maiden. The girl thus becomes a protagonist in her own right. But  now her function is diversion, not support. Basically "let's just party!" Mahler's setting underlines the difference, setting the lines with flirtatious lyricism.

"Im Sommer ist gut lustig sein,
Auf hohen wilden Bergen;
Man ist da ewig ganz allein,
Man hört da gar kein Kindergeschrei,
Die Luft mag einem da werden."

The Prisoner isn't fooled, however, and neither is Mahler. His song ends on the resolute. The old anthem returns, bold and free. 

"Und weil du so klagst, Der Lieb ich entsage, 
Und ist es gewagt So kann mich nicht plagen!

Stets lachen, bald scherzen; 
>Es bleibet dabei,
Die Gedanken sind frei !"

I've used the picture above because it perfectly captures the humour in the song. The Gedanken are depicted as folksy cherubs, rather cheeky, somewhat grotesque. The angel represents the Spirit of Liberty which inspires thoughts of freedom.  She's not a girlfriend and she's not trying to divert the Prisoner from his dreams. 

Schumann & Mahler Lieder Florian Boesch - a must for Mahler

Schumann and Mahler Lieder with Florian Boesch and Malcolm  Martineau, now out from Linn Records, following their recent Schubert Winterreise on Hyperion.
From Boesch and Martineau, excellence is the norm. But their Mahler Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen takes excellence to even greater levels. Although I've heard dozens of performances over the last 40 years, this took my breath away. I've been playing the songs over and over, getting so much from it. Boesch's voice is a thing of wonder - such richness, such beauty, - yet fluidly natural, free of mannerisms and self consciousness. When you listen to Boesch, you're  not listening to "a performance" so much as being drawn into the music itself,  experiencing it in a profoundly personal way.

Mahler's Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen were particularly personal works for Mahler himself. He wrote the texts himself and set them with a very short period: hence their spontaniety. This is very much a young man's adventure. so youthful vigour is central to interpretation.  Martineau plays the first bars of "Wenn mein Schatz Hochzeit macht" which repeat, like tentative but brisk footsteps into the unknown.  Note how steady Boesch's voice is as he joins in, for the protagonist is to undergo a wide range of conflicting emotions as he proceeds on his journey. When Boesch sings "Fröhliche Hochzeit" , for example, the "ö" trembles, as if to emphasize sarcasm.  The protagonist has been alone, weeping in his "dunkles “Kämmerlein". When Boesch repeats the word a second time, he shades it to evoke the darkness and all that it implies.  This intensifies the contrast in the second part of the song with its joyful outburst.  Boesch's voice glows as he sings the lyrical "Blümlein blau! Verdorre nicht!

Vöglein süß!". We can almost imagine the protagonist's lungs swelling, taking in the clean air. Like the bird, the protagonist will make his mark on the world by singing.  Not whining, to make a bad pun.  Martineau's playing is lyrical, too, suggesting the bird, singing alongside the singer.  "Zikuth, zikuth" sings Boesch  with utter simplicity, for the bird represents nature and innocence. For a moment, though, "Singet nicht! Blühet nicht!" and the poet retreats into himself, voice and piano gently muting. But not for long. The pace quickens, the piano line suggesting an energetic hike.  Lilting passages move and flutter. We're on the open meadows."Ei du! Gelt? Guten Morgen! Ei gelt?" Note the  rhythms. Boesch and Martineau keep the tone light. The bird is cheeky but it’s also chirpy. Sparkling piano figures lead into a new, more serene mood, where lines stretch smoothly, held for several measures, as if basking in Sonnenschein.  Yet again, the protagonist retreats, the piano line decelerating breaking into single notes "Nein ! Nein !" sings Boesch, with quiet resignation. "Ich hab' ein glühend Messer" heralds a sudden mood change.  Mahler's contrasts suggest stage drama, perhaps a hint that the protagonist thinks he needs to talk big to make a point. Significantly, the bluff doesn't last : the protagonist moves on.  But to what? He lies under a linden tree, whose perfume was reputedly narcotic.  The music becomes lullaby, gentle rocking patterns in voice and piano. For a baritone who has great heft when he needs it, Boesch  can do soft and tender extraordinarily well.

Will the protagonist wake refreshed or will he die ?  In Das klagende Lied, Mahler's hero rests under a tree, and gets a message from his dead brother. But in Schubert's Winterreise the hero realizes that there are no easy answers. He must keep searching.  So whither the wayfaring lad? "Alles, alles, Lieb und Leid, und Welt, und Traum".  The connections between Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen and Mahler's Symphony no 1 are obvious. But the piece is a breakthrough because Mahler is embarking on a journey in music and metaphysics that might never end.  In 1885, in  Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, we already glimpse Das Lied von der Erde and even the Tenth Symphony looming into view.  Boesch and Martineau are Lieder specialists,deeply immersed in the aesthetic that inspired Romantiuc poetry, painting and music, and have created whole programmes on the theme of Romantic Wanderer.  Please see my review of their recent Wigmore Hall concert here. Boesch has also recorded a Wanderer disc with Roger Vignoles. Like the wanderers of the early Romantic period, Mahler, "Dreimal heimatlos", channels that questing spirit though his music is very different to Schubert's.

Surprisngly, Boesch and Martineau have done relatively little Mahler, but they are Lieder specialists, and this, I think, gives them an edge over some singers whose background might be more geared towards opera  and less intensely intimate genres.  Fundamentally Lieder is an inward genre where sensitivity and emotional intelligence are paramount.  With their extensive experience in Schubert and Schumann, Boesch and Martineau can bring that Lieder sensibility to bear in Mahler, and , perhaps even more significantly, an understanding of the early Romantic roots behind Lieder and behind the folk traditions collected by Brentano and von Arnim for their volume Des Knaben Wunderhorn. Thus this Lieder eines farhrenden Gesellen  is one which even seasoned Mahler listeners should take the time to listen and absorb.  Mahler's symphonies, even past the Fourth, connect to the Wunderhorn background.

Also on this recording, an excellent Schumann Liederkreis op 39, which Boesch and Martineau have done together many times   This version's excellent.   Regular Boesch and Martineau fans will be delighted, because Linn recordings are audiophile quality.  Listeners coming in for the Mahler are in for a serious treat !  Schumann, too, drew on the spirit of the Romantic wanderer, so hearing Schumann and Mahler together enhances our appreciation of how two very different composers approached the same concepts. In Liederkreis op 24, Schumann set Heinrich Heine, more worldly and cynical than Joseph Freiherr von Eichendorff  whose poems inspired Liederkreis op 39.  A wise choice oin the part of Boesch and Martineau, since Eichendorfff's poems are closer to the naturalism and folk wisdom of Wunderhorn. There are wanderer sings, like In der Fremde ("Aus der Heimat hinter den Blitzen rot") and In der Fremde ("Ich hör' die Bächlein rauschen") with its haunting refrain "Ich weiss nicht, wo ich bin".  But there are also songs like Waldesgresräch which connects to the supernatural enchantment of Das klagende Lied, and songs like Frühlingsnacht where in darkness the poet recalls lost love, but is cheered by nightingale song and the fresh blooms of Spring. The themes of Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen ! 

This recording isn't long (47 minutes) but it's packed with good things and worth every cent.  Three songs from Schumann's Lieder und Gesänge aus Wilhelm Meister op 98a, for example,  which Boesch and Martineau have done live several times in recent years.  Wie nie sein Brot mit Tränen aß, Wer sich der Einsamkeit ergibt, and An die Türen will ich schleichen.  Schumann's settings aren't as omnipresent as those by Schubert and Hugo Wolf, but they are every bit their equal, contemplative and - dare I use a naughty word these days - "intellectual".  Wilhelm Meister is a tortured soul, and an exile who will never find peace, but he sings on, nevertheless, though  he's forever doomed to wander.  Nothing pastoral, but also very much in the Romantic spirit of psychological discovery.  

Song Cycle within Song Symphony : Goerne, Mahler Eisler

A song cycle within a song symphony - Matthias Goerne's intriuging approach to Mahler song, with  Marcus Hinterhäuser, at the Wigmore Hall, London.  Mahler's entire output can be described as one vast symphony, spanning an arc that stretches from his earliest songs to the sketches for what would have been his tenth symphony. Song was integral to Mahler's compositional process, germinating ideas that could be used even in symphonies which don't employ conventional singing. Goerne's programme was structured like a symphony, through which songs flowed in thoughtful combination, culminating in the Abschied from  Das Lied von der Erde, revealed as a well-constructed miniature song cycle in its own right.  Goerne is more than a superb singer. He's a true artist who illiminates the musical logic that underlies Mahler's music.
Song is the voice of the human soul. With remarkable consistency, from beginning to end, Mahler's music poses questions about the purpose of human existence in the face of suffering and death, Nearly always, transcendance is found through creative renewal.  Thus this programme began with Der Tamboursg'sell (1901), so well known that it symbolizes the whole Des Knaben Wunderhorn collection of songs. The drummer boy is young but he's being marched to the gallows, for reasons unknown. "Gute Nacht, Gute Nacht!"  Goerne's tone rumbled with chilling darkness, as if haunted.  Das irdische Leben (1892-3) followed, paired with Urlicht, in the piano song version, though it's better known as part of Mahler's Symphony no 2, sung by an alto. This was a thoughtful pairing. Das irdische Leben isn't just about child neglect, but opens onto wider issues like the nurturing of artists. In Urlicht, the protagonist refuses to be turned away, determined to reach its destiny. The song occurs at a critical point in the symphony, where the soul has passed through purgatory and is heading towards resurrection. In Goerne's programme, it is halted, temporarily, though we know there will be resolution. These first three songs thus form a kind of prologue for what is to follow.
Goerne has been singing Mahler for decades, though he hasn't recorded much, which is a loss to posterity as his Mahler is deeply thought through and perceptive.  He's been singing Hanns Eisler even longer, since he grew up a child star in the DDR where Eisler's childrens' songs were well known   He recorded Eisler's German Symphony op 50 (1957) with Lothar Zagrosek in 1995.  Eisler's German Symphony is a song symphony, an "Anti-Fascist Cantata" setting poems by Brecht and Ignazio Silone. Goerne's recording of Eisler's Hollywood Songbook in 1998 is a masterpiece, easily eclipsing all others.and still remainsthe classic.  At the Wigmore Hall, Goerne combined two specialities into a well-integrated whole, the Eialer songs functioning as middle movements expanding the themes in the Mahler songs.

Eisler wrote Hollywood Liederbuch while in exile in Hollywood, pondering on the nature of German culture and identity during the cataclysm that was the Third Reich.  Although Eisler is often colonized by pop singers, these songs are serious art songs and include settings of Hölderlin and Heine and really need to be heard with singers like Goerne who can handle the tricky phrasing and vocal range with the understated finesse they need.  These are songs of existential anguish, expressed obliquely because the pain they deal with is almost too hard to articulate.  For this recital, Goerne chose songs set to some of Brecht's finest poetry, like Hotelzimmer 1942 where Brecht describes neatly arranged objects. But from a radio blare out "Die Seigesmeldungen meiner Feinde". Goerne flowed straight into An den kleinen Radioapparat, reinforcing the connection between the two songs so they flowed together as one larger piece.  The piano parts are written with delicacy, suggesting the fragility of radio waves and the vulnerability of life itself.

Brecht, like Eisler, was a refugee, fleeing from persecution.  After this first group of Eisler songs, Goerne placed Über den Selbstmord. The contrast was shocking. The mood changed from suppressed  anxiety to outright horror. Goerne brought out the surreal malevolence, his voice rasping with menace. "Das ist gefährlich". The song is a deliberate reversal of Romantic imagery - bridges, moonlight, rivers - and sudden, unplanned suicide. Goerne sang the last phrase, letting his words hang, suspended  "das uberträgliche Leben"....coming to a violent sudden end on the word "fort".

A brief respite when Goerne recited lines from Blaise Pascal, which Eisler set with minimal coloration to the Brecht Fünf Elegien, refined miniatures about daily life in Los Angeles, where everything seems normal.  Three more songs of poisoned "normalcy"- Ostersonntag, Automne californien and In die Frühe before a return to the grim reality of  Der Sohn I and Die Heimkehr.  Then again Brecht and Eisler overturn Romantic nostalgia. "Vor mir kommen die Bomber, Tödlicher Schwärme" and a horrific parody of a Homecoming hero.  The songs in the Hollywood Liederbuch can be presented in any order, but Goerne arranged them here in a pattern which suggests deceptively light andantes cut short by brutal scherzi. 

Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde progresses from frenzied denial to transfigured acceptance, expressed through a series of very distinctive songs.  In this performance, context came from the songs that had come before, widening the panorama.  Bethge's texts evoke China a thousand years past. Once again, many face what Brecht and Eisler went through. Hearing the Abschied in this context is uncomfortable, yet also uplifting, for it reminds us that the grass will grow again. Hearing the Abschied for piano also makes us focus on the structure of the song, and the way it, too, develops in a series of distinct stages, like a miniature song cycle, like Das Lied von der Erde itself,  "wunderlich im Spiegelbilde".

The orchestral Das Lied von der Erde predicates on the tension between tenor and alto/mezzo, a typical Mahler contrast between unhappy man and redeeming female deity, but as a stand alone, the Abschied lends itself perfectly well to other voice types. Goerne thus resurrects the Abschied for baritones, connecting the songs of passage, whether they be passages through death or domicile.  The message remains the same. The darker hues in Goerne's voice suggest strength and solidity,  values which emphasize the earthiness of the imagery in the text.  He sings gravitas yet the high notes are reached with grace and ease. At the moment he's singing particularly well, better even than when he recorded Eisler's Ernste Gesänge in 2013, also with songs from the Hollywood Songbook.  Marcus Hinterhäuser's playing was exquisite, so elegant that he made the piano sound like pipa or erhu, revealing the refined, chamber music intimacy in the song that the orchestral versions don't often access.  Although the piano/voice recording with Brigtte Fassbaender, Thomas Moser and Cyprien Katsaris has been around for years, there's no comparison whatsoever. At times I thought Hinterhäuser might be playing a new, cleaner edition of the score, since his playing was infinitely  more beautiful and expressive. I suspect he's just a much better pianist, and he and Goerne have worked together a lot in recent years. As Hinterhäuser played the long non-vocal interludes, Goerne was visibly following the score, listening avidly. That's how good Lieder partnerships are made.  As Goerne sang the last "Ewig....ewig...."  I couldn't bear for the music to end.
you might want to read more :

Schubert Winterreise staged Aix, Goerne, now out on DVD
Brahns exults ! Vier ernste Lieder Goerne Eschenbach
Mahler early songs, orh Berio, Goerne
LOTS and lots on Mahler, Eisler, Lieder and  Goerne, please explore
 This review also appears in Opera Today

Berio Sinfonia and Mahler Early Songs - Goerne.

A landmark new recording from Harmonia Mundi  of Luciano Berio's responses to Gustav Mahler, with Matthias Goerne, the BBC Symphony Orchestra and conductor Josep Pons, featuring  Berio's orchestrations of ten of Mahler's Early Songs with the Sinfonia, in which references to Mahler's Symphony no 2  provide, as Berio said "a generator of harmonic functions and the musical references they imply".

Berio describes the Sinfonia as an "internal monologue" which makes a "harmonic journey". It flows, like a river, sometimes in full flow, sometimes underground.  Mahler 2 is called the "Resurrection" because it's based on the idea that death isn't an end but a stage on a journey to eternal life.  In Sinfonia, there are quotes from at least 15 other composers, but specially significant  are references to Don, the first movement of Boulez's Pli selon Pli (which means fold upon fold, ie, endless layers and permutations).  Don means gift, so this is like a gift  from one composer to another. What has gone before shapes what is to come, but absolutely central is the idea that creativity never ends, but is reborn anew.  Stagnation is death. 

Berio's river in sound flows swiftly, bringing in its wake the streams and springs which have enriched it, adapting them and changing them, surging ever forwards towards the freedom of the ocean. It's filled with subtle references to many things: to Cythera, one of the cradles of Greek civilization and the home of the goddess of regeneration.  Sinfonia is truly a "symphony that contains the world" but it is by no means just collage.  Like a river it also symbolizes constant fertilization and renewal.

Every performance is unique.  This performance naturally names Pons as conductor, and Synergy Vocals by name, but is remarkably fresh and clean-sounding.  Nothing comes close to Boulez's recording, though Chailly and Eötvös are good challengers, but Pons sparkles. Over the years Synergy Vocals have done Sinfonia many times with different personnel, but present it with such a sense of wonder that it feels like new discovery. Which is what a good Sinfonia should be, bringing new detail to the surface, vibrantly dancing with energy like the fishes listening to the saint, but nonetheless going on in their individual ways. The BBCSO, for a band happy in the mainstream, sound like they're having a whale of a time being playful and contrary, for fun was very much part of the Berio mystique.  

"Down with Dogma!" another thread in Sinfonia is apt, since this recording places Sinfonia together with Berio's orchestrations of Mahler's songs for voice and piano.  Mahler himself worked from song to symphony, so, as Berio explained, "One of my aims was to use the orchestration as a respectful and loving instrument of investigation and transformation".  Berio's arrangements were premiered at the Mahler Musikwochen in Toblach where serious Mahler minds meet. The ten songs on this recording come from sets of  frühe Lieder Mahler wrote between 1880 and 1889, which Berio adapted in 1986/7. Thomas Hampson made the first recording in January 1992, with Berio himself conducting the Philharmonia, London.  Much as I love that recording, this new recording is even better. Although Goerne has not recorded much Mahler, Mahler has been central to his career. In 2000, he did a programme where the Early Songs and Des Knaben Wunderhorn were presented by theme, bringing out deeper ideas.  At other times, I've spotted him unobtrusively in concerts, listening with rapt attention.   Hampson's voice is elegant, even stately, but Goerne's more individualistic, which  suits the earthy irony in Wunderhorn.

All these texts come from Brentano and von Arnim's Des Knaben Wunderhorn. Though the songs themselves were written fairly early in Mahler's career, without Wunderhorn, Mahler would not have developed as he did.  The texts may be folksy but the sentiments are sophisticated.  They're not quaint for quaintness's sake, but, like fairy tales, operate like miniature morality fables in a pre-industrial oral tradition.  Thus the sense of non-judgemental wonder Goerne brings to songs like Ablösung im Sommer, Goerne sings the words "Kuckuck ist tod!" with genuine alarm. Although the nightingale will take over, the death of a humble cuckoo is something to be sad about.  Berio's version of Zu Straßburg auf der Schanz is magnificent.  Goerne sings the first words alone, for the protagonist is alone, awaiting execution. then we hear the Alphorn, calling across a vast chasm. This dialogue matters, for this song is about freedom. Die Gedanken sind Frei. Please read my analysis of the song here.  The depth of Goerne's voice suggests strength, not fear, yet also wistfulness. The soldier doesn't want to die but at least he'll be free.  Listen, too, to the tenderness Goerne brings to Nicht Wiedersehen. The poem might seem trite, but when Goerne sings "Meine Herzeallerliebste Schatz", his voice soars, emboldened by the sincerity of genuine grief. 

Berio's orchestration brings out the dance in Hans und Grete, Big sweeping arcs evoke "Ringel, ringel Reih'n"., the force of Nature that pulls together the two timid lovers. Peasants they may be but their love is such that it deserves the full force of a big orchestra.  Ich ging mit Lust is also greatly enhanced, connecting to the way the Lieder eines fahrenden Gesell'n connect to Mahler's Symphony no 1.  Dark-hued baritones don't do delicate easily, but Goerne's touch emphasizes the spring-like freshness in the song, and the warmth of summer to come.  This gentleness flows naturally into Frühlingsmorgen.the words "Steh' auf" charming yet assertive.  In Phantasie, Goerne alternates the top of his timbre with darker depths: the fisher girl cast nets into the sea, but her heart is cold.  On this recording the set ends with Scheiden und Meiden.  The orchestration is richly generous. "Ade "! Ade!" Goerne sings, expansively. "Ja, scheiden und meiden tut weh", but that's the way of the world.  Even babies grow up and change. Moving on isn't a bad thing. An utterly brilliant entree to the world of the Sinfonia.

Goerne is singing very well at the moment : Grab tickets to his Mahler Das Lied von der Erde with Joseph Pons at the Royal Festival Hall on 16th October. They've been touring with this a while,  so it should be good. 

Mahler Zu Straßburg auf der Schanz : its context

Zu Straßburg auf der Schanz, an early song by Gustav Mahler from Lieder und Gesänge, vol. 3: a song with an interesting background. The text comes from Des Knaben Wunderhorn. Clemens and Brentano used the original title Der Schweizer, which is significant to meaning, since, in medieval times, Swiss peasants were so poor that men were forced to volunteer as mercenaries. To this day, the Pope is protected by Swiss soldiers in fancy Renaissance costumes. (Please see my article Arnold Schoenberg and the Swiss Guards)  Pageantry apart,  reality for most Swiss mercenaries was grim. Often living  under harsh conditions, they fought and died in distant lands, never to return home.  The term  Der Schweizer thus refers to a soldier who doesn't "belong", an outsider whose deepest loyalties  cannot be fulfilled, and one who cannot be trusted or integrated into the mainstream.   Not a "romantic" ditty.

The poem, which dates from at least the 17th century, sets the action in Strassburg, a fortress on a river, in territory disputed by French and Germans. In the Franco Prussian War, in the First World War and in the occupation that followed, exploited by Hitler, the people of Alsace-Lorraine  knew only too well what nationalist blustering could bring.  Never again, one hopes.  Strassburg is symbolic : It's the home of the Council of Europe and the European Court of Human Rights, and the official home of the European Parliament being there shows that the EU is not centralized in Brussels. The photo above comes from a set illustrating each verse of the poem, amended with references to France and Prussia.  The sequence also emphasizes the religious context of the original poem, where the deserter is redeemed by his faith in God. (Read the verse above which is in Wunderhorn, but which Mahler did not set)

Mahler, being a composer,  was more influenced by the musical context.  The Swiss man's problems come to a head when "Das Alphorn hört ich drüben wohl anstimmen, Ins Vaterland mußt ich hinüber schwimmen"  Thus the magical introduction, which suggests an alpenhorn calling out over long distances. Perhaps thee soldier was hearing military trumpets, but his mind connected to the Alps, the source of the river which flows through the city of Strassburg.  Switzerland - so near and yet so far.  The voice rises from the word "Alpenhorn" as if the man is looking upwards, searching for distant peaks.  But notice how the piano line suggests drum rolls, and military ritual.  The man knows what's coming and the "drums" dominate. In the song, the short final line is repeated, like a hollow death knell.

But then the man thinks of his "brothers" his fellow mercenaries, who've become like brothers to him, and of "Der Hirtenbub ist doch nur Schuld daran, Das Alphorn hat mir solches angethan, Das klag ich an".  He's a simple shepherd boy, he can't help being mesmerized by the sound of an alpenhorn. Thus the piano sings,  trilling and elusive. A really good pianist (like Daniel Barenboim) can make the piano echo so the sounds hover in the air.  But then the music ends abruptly with two final chords. Like gunshot.

Please see also my other posts on Mahler, Lieder and Not Funny, Des Antonius von Padua Fischpredigt and especially Die Gedanken sind Frei  the background to Mahler's Lied des Verfolgten im Turm. 

Not funny - Mahler Des Antonius von Padua Fischpredigt

Is Mahler's song,  Des Antonius von Padua Fischpredigt,  from Des Knaben Wunderhorn,  meant to be funny ?  On the surface, it's droll, but as with so much good art, it's not a good idea to judge by surface appearances.  Saint Anthony of  Padua, a contemporary of St Francis of Assisi who preached to birds, was a famous orator, with phenomenal abilities to convert the heathen. In the poem from Des Knaben Wunderhorn, collected by Brentano and  von Arnim, the saint arrives at an empty church. So he goes down to the river and preaches to fish instead.  The fish leap and glisten, with excitement.  "Kein Predigt niemalen, den Karpfen so g'fallen"  Nothing like a juicy sermon, even if you can't speak.Latin.  Each verse describes a different type of fish, crabs and turtles, which wouldn't happen in nature.The stylized strophic refrains are a further clue that this isn't reality.

"Fisch große, Fisch kleine, Vornehm und gemeine,
Erheben die Köpfe, Wie verständge Geschöpfe:
Auf Gottes Begehren, Die Predigt anhören."

To the devout, it's a kind of miracle, taken seriously. But, as so often, literalism is the enemy of art. Whoever crafted the poem subverts the pious image.  The minute the saint turns his back, the fish are back to their own ways.  "Spitzgoschete Hechte, die immerzu fechten" remain quarrelsome thieves. Note , too, the greedy carp, whose mouths are always open, swallowing anything they're fed,  A pointed warning for our  times when received wisdom replaces thought. . 

Mahler's setting of the poem reflects its mischief.  The markings indicate "with humour" on the piano part , its rolling rhythms suggesting that the saint's been too free with communion wine, although from what we know of the early Franciscan order, they were ascetic, not given to indulgence. It's a sly reference to Dionysius, a figure who pops up elsewhere in Mahler's work, specifically in Symphony no 3.  This humour is deceptive. "This piece is really as if nature were pulling faces and sticking its tongue out at you" (said Mahler)  "But it contains such a spine-chilling panic-like humour that one is overcome more by dismay than laughter". 

War, loss and death are recurring themes in the Wunderhorn saga. Thomas Hampson has called some of them "negative love songs" for they are neither optimistic nor sentimental. The regimentation of military life contrasts with individual freedom,  though these brief escapes through love and imagination are doomed. In death. troops of skeletons march through streets, and lovers meet, as ghosts. Des Antonius von Padua Fischpredigt isn't funny. It's a wail of despair, though the wit dulls the pain. 

 Think ahead to Wozzeck, where the anti-hero tries to do his best, but is destroyed by the cycle of madness around him. Can we hear in the cyclic traverses of Wozzeck, echoes of the marches in Des Knaben Wunderhorn and the repetitions in Des Antonius von Padua Fischpredigt ? Maybe, maybe not, but that should start you thinking. DKW and Georg Büchner's Woyzeck come from a similar vein in the Romantic Imagination. 

Furthermore, consider Des Antonius von Padua Fischpredigt in the context of Mahler's Symphony no 2. The long first movement may represent a funeral march, taken at a steady processional pace. From that the Ländler breezes serve a a Ruckblick on  a happy past, which will inevitably be left behind. In the third movement,  marked "In ruhig fließender Bewegung" come the references to the world of Des Knaben Wunderhorn.  The departed may be dead, physically, but Nature is working its miracles. The "Fischpredigt" passage begins with a  bang, the quirky woodwind melody leaping energetically, the strings surging with energized power.  The sermon is over, but that's not a negative thing. Now, we can move forward.  The music moves like the fish, disciples of the power of Nature to regenerate itself. Even at this point, we can think of Der Abschied, "Ewig, ewig.....".  In this context, the Des Antonius von Padua Fischpredigt represent transformational change, as well as the wilfulness of fish who don't change their ways. 

Hence the danger of interpreting this song too narrowly and too literally. Please also read my article "Why greedy kids in Mahler 4"  Understand and absorb the spirit of Des Knaben Wunderhorn : it's a key into Mahler's inner world.
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Christian Gerhaher Mahler Wigmore Hall

Star singer and star composer, a combination guaranteed to bring in the fans. Christian Gerhaher sang Mahler at the Wigmore Hall with Gerold Huber. Gerhaher shot to fame when he sang Wolfram  at the Royal Opera House Tannhäuser in 2010 (read my review here),  His "O du, mein holder Abendstern" was so sublimely beautiful that it seemed  to come from beyond the realms of reality. Wolfram is not so much a character in an opera as an almost divine symbol of  Knightly Virtue. But does the idealized perfection of Wartburg triumph over Venusberg?  Tannhäuser didn't think so, and Elisabeth chooses Tannhäuser.

Pertinent thoughts with a significant bearing on Mahler performance practice. Gerhaher began with Mahler's Lieder eines fahrenden  Gesellen. Far too much emphasis is placed on their autobiographical content. Like a Geselle, Mahler is learning his craft, through well-made "apprentice miniatures" that will form the basis of his symphonies from the first to the fourth, with echoes beyond  He was experimenting with the aesthetic of Des Knaben Wunderhorn, the collection of poems and  ballads compiled from oral tradition by Achim von Armin and Clemens Brentano in 1805. The folk origins of this collection are significant, for they embodied early 19th century Romantic attitudes, not authentic "folk" tradition so much as reworkings by intellectuals for the fast-growing urban middle class. Mahler wasn't writing fake folk song but songs as themes  that will later be developed in sophisticated abstract form.

 Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen isn't a song cycle so much as a series of stand-alone songs, each of which illustrates an emotional state, from the energetic "Ging  heut' Morgen übers Feld " to the scherzo-like psychosis of "Ich hab'ein glühend Messer". A certain amount of detachment on the part of singer and pianist is reasonable, but Gerhaher and Huber didn't engage with the emotional changes. Gerhaher's pace was fractionally too slow, not perhaps enough for most to notice, but enough to keep voice and piano out of synch. Huber jumped in too forcefully.

A selection of songs based on Das Knaben Wunderhorn followed, including early songs from the  Lieder und Gesäng,e aus der Jugendzeit. Songs about children, but songs with a macabre twist, reflecting a very different attitude to youth than we hold today. After Bruno Bettelheim, we can't take fairy tales at surface value. Even the lyrical "Zu Strassburg auf der Schanz" describes a soldier who deserts his post and is executed. "Das irdische Leben" could deal with child abuse, or the fate of unrecognized talent, but by its very nature, it should express something.  Mahler returns to the theme in later works, so it must have had more meaning for him than Gerhaher and Huber brought to it on this occasion. Possibly Gerhaher wasn't well as he mopped his brow a lot, which is perfectly acceptable, especially at this time of the year. But no matter how beautiful a singer's instrument might be, artistry resides in the way it is played. To paraphrase Mahler himself, "the music lies not in the notes" but in the communication of ideas.

Kindertotenlieder marks a transition in Mahler's music leading away from the world of Wunderhorn towards more conceptual horizons. In many ways, this group of songs resembles a five-movement symphony, integrated by recurring motifs of dark and light,  rising to a transcendent finale, where the storm is vanquished, and the children "vom Gottes Hand bedeckt". In its own way not so very different from the redemption and transfiguration that marks works like Das Lied von der Erde. To reach this resolution, however, the poet has had to undergo extreme desolation.  Friedrich Rückert knew about death and anguish. In "Wenn dein Mütterlein" , he refers to gazing, not at the mother's face, but closer to the ground, where children should be. It's detail that could probably come only from lived experience. Dignity is in order, and restraint, but emotional truth is of the essence. As Tannhäuser might have said, good singing isn't everything.

 For an encore, Gerhaer and Huber offered a piano version of Urlicht from Mahler's Symphony no 2.  "Der Mensch liegt in größter Pein!" .He is so rejected that even the angels want to turn him away. but that only strengthens his resolve. "Ich bin von Gott und will wieder zu Gott!". At last, Gerhaher's voice took on more colour and more definition. An excellent encore. If only the rest of the recital had been as good.

photo credit : Simon  Jay Price

MILESTONE NEW SET Mahler recordings 1903-40

At last, probably the definitve set of recordings of the music of Gustav Mahler from issued 78's between 1903 and 1940. Although some of these recordings have been known for some time, this new 8 CD set from Urlicht Audio-Visual is a collectors item because it's so beautifully put together. 

This is the most comprehensive collection ever assembled, including every recording listed in Peter Fulop's Mahler Discograhy. The booklet, with notes by Sybille Werner and Gene Gaudette, is a work of scholarship. It evolved from Werner's research with Henry-Louis de La Grange into the reception of Mahler's music in this period, which proved that the composer's music was heard more often than previously assumed. 

Werner and Gaudette's notes for this set contain the most comprehensive description of the world of recording in this era, and the people involved. They explain the odd sound balance on the first acoustic recording, Ein Mädchen verloren (from Die Drei Pintos) by Leopold Demuth in 1903: the baritone has to shout into the horn of the recording machine. This sort of insight informs the way we listen to performance practice. Read her analysis of Oskar Fried's portamento and "surprisingly steady tempo" in his pioneer recording of Mahler's Symphony no 2 in 1924, one of the first full orchestra recordings made possible by new electrical technology. This was one of the last major acoustic recordings made by Polydor. Had they only waited about a year!  Fried knew Mahler personally, as did Willem Mengelberg,  whose 1926 Adagietto from Mahler's Symphony no 5 is included, but it would be wrong to deduce how Mahler himself might have conducted. This is also an opportunity to compare Mengelberg's Adagietto with Bruno Walter's, made in Vienna in January 1938.

Some of these recordings are well known, such as Jascha Horenstein's 1928 Kindertotenlieder with Heinrich Rehkemper, which Benjamin Britten played incessantly. But Mahler enthusiasts will treasure this new set because the transfers are new, and made by the best people in the business, Ward Marston and Mark Obert-Thorn. You can hear the difference. Surface noise is reduced and the music shines more clearly. Hidemaro Konoye's pioneer recording of Mahler's Symphony no 4,  plagued by poor sound quality, now shows why Konoye was involved with Franz Schreker, Richard Strauss, Fürtwangler and Erich Kleiber. Marston and Obert-Thorn used originals in their own collections and also from a number of extremely scarce discs that were lent from the collections of Raymond J Edwards Jr, Nathan Brown and Charles Niss. The transfer of Mahler's Symphony no 1 ((Mitropoulos, Minnesota Symphony Orchestra), was provided by Charles Martin. 

Great classics like Bruno Walter's Das Lied von der Erde (Kerstin Thorberg, Charles Kullmann) are on this set, in cleaner sound, but also relative rarities like  a 1928 potpourri of Das Lied von der Erde (Dol Dauber Salonorchester, Wien), and Um Mitternacht transcribed for voice and organ, recorded in Central Hall, Westminster, London, in the same year. These ventures may suggest that attitudes to music were different to today. That's why we need to know the archaeology of musical performance. There are no rigid rules. Styles change, just like accents in speech change. These recordings were made when Mahler was "new music". But all good performance approaches the score in an original way and makes the music feel new. 

This Urlicht Audio Visual set, Gustav Mahler issued 78's 1903-1940 is a milestone, an essential reference work for anyone interested in Mahler and in perfomance history. The transfers superede earlier versions, and Sybille Werner's notes are unique. Click on the link at thes beginning of this paragraph to purchase. The set has been compiled not by anonymous mega business, but real Mahler enthusiasts who care passionately about what they are doing. They deserve our support.

Goerne Andsnes Mahler Shostakovich Wigmore Hall

At the Wigmore Hall, London, Matthias Goerne and Lief Ove Andsnes performed Mahler in a unique programme built around Shostakovich's  Suite on Verses of Michelangelo Buonarroti op 145 (1974). Who but Goerne would dare such an eclectic juxtaposition, framing six songs from Shostakovich's eleven song cycle with songs drawn from Mahler's entire output, each of which presents formidable challenges? Most singers would pale at the very prospect of singing songs from the Rückert Lieder, Des Knaben Wunderhorn, Kindertôtenlieder, and transcriptions from the symphonies, but by throwing Shostakovich into the mix, Goerne drew out new perspectives in both Mahler and Shostakovich. This was a daring, even shocking programme, and technically a formidable undertaking, but Goerne carried it off with conviction and superlative artistry.

The Mahler anniversary year brought forth Mahlerkugeln, commercially palatable but poisonous to art.  Goerne's Mahler isn't like that, but as uncompromising and demanding as the composer himself.  He's been singing Mahler for nearly 20 years, his interpretations enhanced with an intuitive appreciation of the music as a whole. I've seen him sneak into the audience after singing, and watched him listening intensely to the orchestra and conductor he'd just worked with playing symphonies with no vocal part. This in itself is an insight: song infuses all of Mahler's music and vice versa. Mahler's songs aren't really made for celebrity showcases, but for those who care about the idiom as a whole.

Hearing Mahler on equal terms with Shostakovich broadens the equation, shedding light on Shostakovich's admiration for Mahler. Goerne has made a speciality of  Suite on Verses of Michelangelo Buonarroti  Here he did the piano and voice original with Andsnes, but the memory of the much richer, more complex orchestral version hung over it inaudibly, much in the way that knowing Mahler's orchestral music enhances appreciation of his songs.

The programme was divided in themes based around each of the Shostakovich songs. in Utro (Morning), the poet describes his lover's golden tresses, garlanded by flowers.  The mood is sensual, perfumed with the promise of love. Goerne began with the most delicate of Rückert songs Ich atmet' einen Linden Duft, where the music sways like an invisible fragrance. Melancholy infuses Shostakovich's song, as if in the moment of embrace he can foresee parting. Seamlessly, Goerne and Andsnes  flowed into Wo die schõnen Trompeten blasen, where the woman thinks her lover has returned. But he's an illusion, foretelling death.  These songs aren't to be taken at face values. Goerne's hushed tones suggested sadness, quietly understated.

The expansive long lines in Razluka (Separation) express distances, in time and in space. The poet cannot live without love, and dies, leaving the memory of his devotion as a pledge. Michelangelo, being an artist, lives eternally in the works he left behind. Goerne followed Razluka with Es sungen drei Engel einen súßen Gesang, the transcription for solo voice and piano of the Wunderhorn song that appears in Mahler's Symphony no 3. In the symphony, the youthful chorus sounds innocent, but the song deals with life after death. Similarly, in Das irdische Leben the child dies because its needs are unfulfilled. Goerne emphasized the word "Totenbahr" to drive home the point. Two songs from Kindertotenlieder followed, Nun seh' ich wohl, warum so dunkle Flammen and Wenn dien Mütterlein, where Rückert describes seeing the images of his dead children. Was dir nur Augen sind in diesen Tagen" sang Goerne,  purposefully, "in künft'gen Nächten sind es dir nur Sterne" Death is just one of those "separations" (Razluka) that will be overcome. Yet again, Goerne and Andsnes performed the piano/voice transcription of Urlicht from Mahler's Symphony no 2. We don't need to hear the mezzo and the choir, but we remember them and the part the song plays in the symphony.

In Noch, Michelangelo describes a marble angel that breathes, both a work of man and of God. Shostakovich wrote this cycle as he approached his own death, possibly anxious that once he was dead, the Soviets might suppress his music, so the connections to Rückert and to Mahler are clear. "Ich bin gestorben" sang Goerne with quiet dignity, rising to forceful rstraint "In meinem Himmel, in meinem Lieben, in meinem Lied". Ich bin der Welt Abhandedn gekommen as a song of protest? In this performance, totally convincing.

Hence Goerne and Andsnes launched without a break into Shostakovich Bessmertiye (Immortality).
with its defiant capriciousness. "No ya ne myortv, khot i opushchen v zemlyu" (I am not dead, though I lie in the earth). The critical line rises gloriously, agilely upward "I am alive in the hearts of all who love"  Andnes played the "shining" motif evoking a balalaika, a folk instrument that can't be suppressed, but in this performance, the Mahler images of light and "Urlicht" were more dominant than in performances with a true Russian bass like Dmitri Hvorostovsky. But deep basses can't quite manage the agility needed for Mahler.

In Dante, Shostakovich unleashed the pent-up savagery he must have felt, living in a repressed society. Dante's writings, the text reminds us,  were "regarded with scorn by the general mob", bur  Michelangelo would prefer to suffer than deny art. Ya b luchshey doli v mire ne zhelal!" sang "I could wish for no finer earthly life".  Goerne has spoken Russian since childhood. He was young enough to receive the benefits of a DDR education without suffering hardship, but any sensitive person can identify with the idea of art overcoming obstacles. One has only to think of Masur and the Leipziger Gewandhaus Orchester in the tense times of 1989. 

Hearing Mahler's Revelge in this context  makes the song much more pointed than a mere ghost story. The dead soldiers march through the town at night, singing "tralalee, tralalay, tralala" but the words were sung with a hollow mechanical edge. Entirely appropriate because in war, men are turned into machine fodder. The point might have been made even more savagely if Goerne and Andnes had included Shostakovich's Gnev (Anger) which specifically pins the blame on the abuse of  power. "For Rome is a forest full of murderers". However, I suspect that would have shifted the balance too far from Mahler.

Instead, we had Smert (Death), whose slow, sinking lines move in penitential procession. The strings of Andsnes's piano were suppressed to create a sense of hollowness, like footsteps treading implacably towards death. Shostakovich's full cycle ends on an upbeat, light motifs skipping into eternity. This performance ended with Mahler's Der Tamboursg'sell, where the drummer might seem unconcerned about his imminent execution. He says goodbye to the military, rank by rank, but we don't know what he's done to deserve being killed. Perhaps, to interpret this song, we need to consider other sources,the times and even the context. When we listen to anything, we hear more than what's immediately before us. This recital had such an impact on me that I was thinking about how Mahler and Shostakovich fitted into a wider musical scheme of things. Goerne and Andsnes sang Beethoven An die Hoffnung Op 94 for an encore, with the glorious, "O Hoffnung", glowing with hope and the references to angels, midnight and transcendence. I could almost visualize composers  moving in succession : Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, Mahler, Shostakovich and many more, and think of performers, performances and music other than song. The recital was over, but still having an impact on me. 

This article appears in Opera Today

January at the Wigmore Hall

Back to real music at the Wigmore Hall in January! On Saturday all day, Apartment House presents an eclectic programme. Interesting, even though I don't know any of the works featured I might go.

Absolutely unmissable is Matthias Goerne's recital on 7/1, with Lief Ove Andsnes. Amazingly challenging programme mixing Mahler songs with Shostakovich's Suite on verses of Michelangelo Buonarroti. Goerne's approach to both composers is highly original and perceptive. Definitely an event for serious fans of song and good repertoire. It's been sold out for months.It could tie in well with the four-part Wigmore Hall series on Russian music with Roy Stafford which runs each Thursday this month.

EIGHT TOP CONCERTS IN A ROW! Angelika Kirchschlager and Jean-Yves Thibaudet do another very strong Brahms and Liszt programme on 20/1. The very next day Christoph Prégardien and  Michael Gees do an interesting programme which mixes big names like Schubert and Wolf with less well known contempraries like Loewe and Franz Lachner, whom Prégardien has done so much to promote. Search this site for more on Lachner.Very interesting baroque and early music, too. On 22nd  La Nuova Music presents Francesco Conti's 1732 opera Issipile prepared for the Hapsburg court. Top soloists, which will make the evening very worthwhile indeed. And on 23rd the acclaimed Jack Quartet performs Ferneyhough, Anderson and others. On 24/1 Sara Mingardo sings Venetian baroque, and on 25th the Nash Ensemble, with Latonia Moore, Kim Cresswell and Roderick Willliams do American songs (Barber, Ives, Copland, Gershwin) - probably way above the usual. Luca Pisaroni sings Beethoven, Reichardt and Brahms with Wolfram Rieger on 26th and on 27/1 Florian Boesch sings Schubert and Wolf with Malcolm Martineau. I might also go to Mauro Peter's debut on 28/1 and to Classical Opera Haydn/Mozart on 30/1. That's ten recitals in eleven days, or eleven if you include Peter Grimes at the ENO on 29th. . I can't even contemplate the chamber music recitals, and other things that otherwise would be very tempting. I might as well camp on the pavement.

Thomas Hampson Mahler Wigmore Hall

Thomas Hampson "lives" Mahler. He's the greatest Mahler singer of our time, and a serious Mahler scholar as well. You could almost say that what Hampson doesn't know about Mahler might not be worth knowing, but he still finds something fresh and new. So, even after all these years, it was good to hear Hampson and Wolfram Rieger perform Mahler at the Wigmore Hall.

Hampson and long-term collaborator Rieger began at the beginning, with some of Mahler's earliest songs such as Scheiden und Meiden and Aus! Aus! from around 1888. They are significant because they represent Mahler's earliest engagement with Des Knaben Wunderhorn, the collection of folk-derived poems published by Achim von Arnim and Clemens Brentano in 1806/8.  Their appeal to Mahler is obvious. He grew up in a small town with a military garrison. From childhood, he would have recognized the sound of marches and military bands and connected emotionally to the lives of soldiers, and to the simple townsfolk and huntsmen around him. Death was no stranger to Mahler even as a child. Indeed, his fascination with marches, funeral marches and resurrection stemmed from very deep sources in his psyche

Hampson has spoken out against war and gave a remarkable recital in which the Wunderhorn songs were perceptively presented by theme rather than as they appear in publication. Hampson called the Wunderhorn songs "negative love songs" for their protagonists retain sturdy defiance in adverse situations. Lied des Verfolgten im Turm (1898) refers to the picture by Moritz von Schwind. A man is imprisoned in a tower. Meanwhile a row of elves are busily trying to saw down the bars on the window to help him escape. "Gedanken sind Frei", Hampson cries. Thoughts are free. As long as we can dream, we cannot be suppressed. Even now, that's a revolutionary concept.
 
Zu Strassburg auf der Schanz, with its march rhythm just slightly off-beat, resolves in an evocation of trumpets and drums. The symphonist in Mahler was never far away, even when he was writing piano song. Revelge, that most nightmarish of songs is a masterpiece. If Hampson's voice wasn't, on this occasion, as rich and fluid as it can be, Rieger's playing was manic, horrific. Rieger's staccato ripped like a volley of machine-gun fire. As Hampson notes, the music evokes"Drang", the Grim Reaper gone mad. With our modern ears, it's like a forewarning of the slaughter of the trenches, and worse.."Tralali, tralaley, tralalera" is no lullaby here, but a bitter protest.

Although Alma would ridicule Alexander von Zemlinsky in her memoirs, the truth is more complex.  Zemlinsky knew Alma's songs years before they reached publication. Even though he was infatuated, he told her that her music was, like herself, "a warm, feminine sensitive opening but then of doodles, flourishes, unstylish passage work. Olbrich [a publisher] should have your songs performed by an artiste from the Barnum and Bailey (circus) company, wearing the customary black tails, and on his head, a dunce's cap". It is significant that Alma's songs are orchestrated frequently by other composers, who want them to be more than they are.

The connections between Mahler, Zemlinsky, Strauss, Dehmel, Schoenberg and Webern are so well known they don't need explanation. Hampson sang Zemlinksy's Enbeitung, Alma's Die stille Nacht.and three settings of Dehmel, two by Webern (Aufblick and Tief von fern, both 1901-4) and one by Strauss (Befreit, op 39/4 1898). In Befreit, the round vowel sounds resonated with warmth. "O Glück !" he sang, rising to a glowing crescendo. His family and friends were in the audience. Hampson's feelings were touchingly sincere, though the poem itself is more equivocal.

The highlight of the evening was Schoenberg's Erwartung op 2/1 1899), which pre-dates the monodrama op 17 (1909), and even Schoenberg's meeting with Marie Pappenheim. The dedicatee was Zemlinsky, and the text by Richard Dehmel. It's a cryptic poem where images are reversed. "Aus der meergrünen Tieche....schient der Mond". A woman's face appears under the water. A man throws a ring into the pond. Three opals sparkle. He kisses them, and in the sea-green depths "Ein Fenster tut sich auf". Hampson sang, floating the words with eerie stillness. Then the punchline: "Aus der roten Villa neben den der toten Eiche" with which the poem began, a woman's pale hand waves. Rieger played the circular figures so they felt obsessive, as if trapped in an endless mad dance. The similarities with the later Erwartung are obvious, but the song is fin-de- siècle symbolism and very early Expressionism rather than psychosis. In retrospect, it might seem eerily prophetic of the relationships between Mathilde Zemlinsky and Richard Gerstl, or indeed, Alma and Gropius.

Mahler's Rückert-Lieder are so well known now that it's sometimes forgotten - though not by Hampson - that they were originally published together with the Wunderhorn songs Revelge and Der Tambourg'sell. which weren't included with the first Wunderhorn collections. In 1993, Hampson recorded an interesting collection of Wunderhorn-themed songs with Geoffrey Parsons, which included piano song versions of Urlicht and Es Sungen drei Engeln. This time, with Rieger at the Wigmore Hall, he separated the first four Rückert-Lieder with a Wunderhorn song (Erinnerung) and sang Liebst du um Schönheit as a finale, intensifying the underlying theme of the recital. "It's a postcard", said Hampson, "a message of love". "If you love for beauty, youth or riches" runs the poem, "Do not love me. But if you love for the sake of love, Dich lieb' ich immerdar". The most beautiful, most tender song of the evening, straight from the heart.

A full version of this appears in Opera Today

The Zen of Mahler - Um Mitternacht

It is midnight, and the poet awakes and looks upwards to the heavens. But no star is shining. No comfort. No pathetic fallacy  "kein Lichtgedanken mir Trost gebracht".  The only sound he hears is his own heartbeat. "Nahm ich in Achtn Die Schläge meines Herzens; Ein einz'ger Puls war angefacht". Try this sometime, it's frightening to realize that all that keeps you from dropping dead is a piece of muscle.  We don't know what metaphysical "battle" the poet speaks of, except that he knows that it's not up to him; he hasn't the power to change things. "Kämpft' ich die Schlacht, O Menschheit, deiner Leiden; Nicht konnt' ich sie entscheiden Mit meiner Macht"  So he puts his faith in a higher being, ie God, "Hab' ich die Macht In deine Hand gegeben! Herr über Tod und Leben Du hältst die Wacht!" That's the breakthrough, being able to stop trying to control what cannot be controlled. To accept that there are things beyond our comprehension. Zen. In Rückert's case that means Christanity but it applies to all faith. Don't claw and scramble, chill. Faith gets a bad press these days because it's been hijacked by intolerant control freaks, who don't understand what it's really all about.

In the poem,  Rückert repeats the words "Um Mitternacht" at the beginning and end of each stanza, with the insistent regularity of a heartbeat. The song has been orchestrated, but the version for piano song is more private and intimate as befits the situation. Then, when the poet puts his faith in something beyond himself, the vocal line rises "HERR!" Notice how the piano line falls evenly, like an inner pulse. I much prefer hearing a baritone in the part, because most Mahler songs are written for low voice and the poet's perspctive is masculine. Christa Ludwig is good and Gerald Moore is too, but YouTube is pot luck. Ten years ago Matthias Goerne was singing this, so wonderfully that a noted Mahler devotee asked that the off air tape be played at her funeral.  Goerne makes the "Herr!" ring out with intense depth, stretching the word so it fills out, like his whole chest (and heart) reach out. . Incredibly moving.  He's still singing it, and no doubt with even more depth of experience, but he doesn't get the marketing fuss he deserves, but I haven't heard him sing it recently. 

For the full text and translation, please see Emily Ezust's Song and Lieder Texts Page here - fantastic resource.

Trumpets and Demons - Prom 63 Mahler 1, Liszt Fischer

Trumpets and Demons ! Marches and Dances of Death ! In Prom 63, Ivan Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra set the Royal Albert Hall ablaze with an exceptionally powerful Mahler Symphony no 1. This was Mahler's Declaration of Independence, the calling card with which he burst onto the world. Already, Mahler is declaring concepts that he'll continue to develop until his death. Conducting this symphony is a test of any conductor's understanding of the composer. This was a truly inspired performance, revealing bold insights.

In Prom 63, Fischer's approach was coloured by Liszt, whose influence on Mahler is underestimated, though Liszt himself dismissed Mahler's Das klagende Lied in no uncertain terms.  Mahler conducted the.Mephisto Waltz no 1 (Der Tanz in der Dorfschenke) several times and knew it well. Mefistofele grabs the violin from a village fiddler. Bucolic folk tune transformed by the Devil himself. Folk idiom juxtaposed with surreal, and macabre. Freund' Hein, who will appear in the sforzando section in Mahler's 2nd Symphony. Lizst's Faust Symphony (read more about this HERE)  springs to mind, and Mahler's Eighth on the theme of Faust's redemption.

If anything Liszt's Totentanz connects even more strongly to Mahler's music. Listen to those savage, angular ostinatos transformed by magical flurries, and think of Mahler's relentless marches and the whips of bright sound that will come in Mahler. Although Mahler was himself a pianist, he wrote but one work for piano, and nothing concertante. His voice "was" the orchestra. Liszt's "voice" was the piano. Dejan Lazić played with assertive authority, easily a match for this orchestra. How full bodied this piano sounds here, imitating the sonority in the orchestra, breaking away with flourishes that defy containment. In Mahler's symphony,  a vibrant new spirit emerges from struggle and breaks free. Mahler discarded the title "Titan" very early on, but it's not irrelevant, since in Jean Paul's Titan, a young hero becomes king.

Blumine is a serenade andante Mahler dropped after the Budapest premiere of the First Symphony in 1889. It's a fragment from the now-lost incidental music to Der Trompeter von Säkkingen, hence the prominent part for trumpet.  Although the piece has charm,. its inclusion in performance is rarely successful, so Fischer respects the composer's second thoughts. By placing Blumine between Mephisto no 1 and Totentanz, Fischer bridges Liszt with Mahler imaginatively.

Fischer's Mahler 1 is audacious. Clear, pure trumpet calls, not quite a reveille. Fischer's players make the call sound searching, soaring. From the low rumblings that follow, emerges a melody one recognizes as Ging heut' morgen übers Feld, from Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen. It's not accidental recycling. By incorporating song into the symphony, Mahler is adding an extra dimension to what the symphony might mean. "This moring I strode out across the fields". The poet, (Mahler himself) has been jilted but he leaves his sorrows behind. A bird calls out Ei du! Gelt?. "Isn't the world beautiful!". Is this reveille the awakening of Spring and creative energy ? These strings are certainly lush and verdant, evoking "alles Ton und Farbe". But Fischer makes sure that danger creeps in. Full-toned triumph, but undercut with sharp, chilling alarums. As in the song, the poet takes nothing for granted.

A new theme emerges, balanced between peasant ländler and dreamy waltz. Again, trumpets and brass provide momentum and the section ends abruptly, emphatically. Then the haunted "Funeral March", apparently suggested by Moritz von Schwind's How the Animals buried the Hunter (click on image to enlarge). Another true Mahlerian contradiction. Death fells the hunter, power structures reversed. Fischer doesn't overdo the pathos as some conductors do. These animals are grieving, not seeking revenge. The idea of nature as a cycle, that returns again and again in Mahler. Fischer connects the passage to the steady forward thrust of the march that flows throufghout this symphony, and indeed, through most of Mahler's music. Next transit : the entry of another song from Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen. Fischer knows why the march blends with the theme Auf der Straße steht ein Lindenbaum, the symbol of sleep, dreams but not, here, of death, since the music keeps moving forwards until it's shot through by a stunning fanfare.

How full-bodied the orchestra sounds here, such depth and verve. Pounding circular figures, which repeat over and over. The march again in a new guise. Fischer and his orchestra get the bright, dizzying whips of sound particularly well, so there's no sense of stasis. The quiet passage has echoes of something nostalgic, a Ruckblick of some sort, the beautiful waltz theme remembered.  Then suddenly trumpets and timpani explode, horns and trombones call ever upwards. A new theme appears tentaively, submerged into another explosive crescendo, which are created with great crispness and clarity. Then the theme takes over, trumpets and brass "marching" again. This three chord theme always reminds me of Handel's Hallelujah chorus "King of Kings ! Lord of Lords ! He shall reign forever and ever". Whether Mahler was deliberately quoting or not, the concept does fit the mood of the symphony. Fischer's reading isn't as violent as some, and the gentler passages that follow the outburst are elegantly shaped. Again the rolling circular "march" returns, whipped ahead by extremely bright trumpets, heralding the final glorious coda, which here sounded specially golden and vivid.  Such a purposeful, determined and clear-headed. Mahler has arrived !

As a Mahler conductor, Ivan Fischer is much more idiomatic than Semyon Bychkov, whose Mahler 6th (Prom56)  I admired so much. Fischer engages with Mahler on a much deeper level, bringing out the fundamental strong mindedness in Mahler's architecture, which underpins the spiritual searching. "Always, trajectory!" as Pierre Boulez used to say. For Fischer, too, trajectory is a key to meaning. There are many ways to conduct Mahler 1, but this one has me transfixed.