你好When it comes to hard luck stories, Gustave Mahler’s must be one of the hardest to beat. In 1907 he’d been forced out of his position as head of the Vienna Court Opera due for political reasons, chief among which was the fact that Mahler had been born Jewish. Around the same time his favorite and eldest daughter died (at age four), and doctors discovered that he had a serious heart condition. A few weeks later a friend gave him The Chinese Flute, a translation or rather a re-working of the poems of Li-Tai Po, the famous Tang dynasty poet-wanderer and those of Mong-Kai-Yen and Wang-Wei. Mahler appreciated their terse elegance and felt expressed how he felt, not wishing to die, but accepting the inevitability of death. Their theme is that nature renews itself as it goes through the seasons; man enjoys them briefly and then passes away, leaving the earth to go on renewing itself.

At one time it was thought that Mahler was in love with death, but in fact, he was so superstitious about calling this his ninth symphony. Beethoven’s ninth symphony had turned out to be that composer’s last and Mahler feared that in the same way his ninth symphony would kill him. So not to tempt fate, Mahler called his symphonic song cycle The Song of the Earth. (Das Lied von der Erde) and left it without a number. Whatever…the six movement Das Lied is simply the first and greatest work of its kind. (My apologies to Shostakovitch and Zemlinsky).

What’s in my player: Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde (Song of the Earth) - Kathleen Ferrier, Contralto, Julius Patzak, Tenor, Vienna Philharmonic, Bruno Walter, Cond., Decca Legends 289 466 576-2

It’s almost impossible to listen to this performance without taking into account that Bruno Walter was Mahler’s close friend and protégé, and probably assisted in the premiere. Kathleen Ferrier, the contralto knew that this performance was to be one of her last, that like the final movement, "Der Abschied" (The Farewell), that she would only see the earth turn green only one more time.

The famous last movement is nearly as long as the previous five movements altogether. Its text is drawn from two different poems, both involving the theme of leave-taking. With the first notes on the tam-tam all hope seems to have vanished with the setting sun. The length and heaviness of this movement make the previous ones seem like phantasms, unreal flickers of light flashing across a background of unending darkness. The orchestra sounds as if broken into pieces. The instruments fall in small clusters or play by themselves, each voice piercing the emptiness for a moment before breaking off, as if choked by what does not bear saying.

In the instrumental funeral march at the center of the movement, these voices become more and more discordant, like a crowd of lost souls crying out in misery. They paint a picture of universal loneliness. This is the life-world whose harsh essence becomes clear to the one leaving it; yet Mahler seems to hold onto this world with the last of his strength.

The last movement is very difficult to conduct, because of its cadenza writing for voice and solo instruments. Bruno Walter said that Mahler showed him the score of this movement and asked, "Do you know how to conduct this? Because I certainly don't." Mahler also hesitated to put the piece before the public because of its relentless negativity, unusual even for him. "Won't people go home and shoot themselves?" He asked. But the last farewell is fundamentally ambiguous: through the eyes of leave-taking, the wounded earth at last shines out in all its beauty. Hope seems to hide in the tissues of the music, beneath its uncompromising bleakness. Kafka's phrase, "There is hope, but not for us." may capture the message.

The dear earth everywhere

Blossoms in spring, and grows green anew.

Everywhere and forever, forever

Blue lights the horizon.

Forever... forever...

The singer sings the last line over and over like a mantra, accompanied by a blend of strings, mandolin, tam-tam, and celesta, until the music fades into silence Resignation and hope are one and the same.

Full of anger, love and longing, Mahler pulled off a perfect synthesis of the lyrical and philosophical aspects of his music in this work. A piece that, from such a personal perspective, can speak so deeply of universal human issues, is truly brilliant.