Gustav Mahler - Das Lied von der Erde (Audio + Full Score)

Описание: ‘What do you think? Isn’t it unbearable? Won’t people go home and shoot themselves after hearing this?' - Mahler to Bruno Walter, on 'Der Abschied'

Gustav Mahler's 'Das Lied von der Erde' (The Song of the Earth) is, in my opinion, the most beautiful piece of music ever written. Scored for 2 voices and orchestra, it is in 6 movements:

I. "Das Trinklied vom Jammer der Erde" - 0:00
II. "Der Einsame im Herbst" - 8:30
III. "Von der Jugend" - 17:06
IV. "Von der Schönheit" - 20:07
V. "Der Trunkene im Frühling" - 26:59
VI. "Der Abschied" – 31:33

This particular recording is my favourite, and it uses the original voices of Tenor (Movements 1, 3, 5) and Alto (Movements 2, 4, 6), unlike the Bernstein recording of which the score video to this piece exists.

Pierre Boulez
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra
Tenor – Michael Schade
Alto – Violetta Urmana

The first movement, "The Drinking Song of Earth's Misery" (for tenor, in A minor), continually returns to the refrain, ‘Dunkel ist das Leben, ist der Tod’ ("Dark is life, is death"), pitched a semitone higher on each successive appearance. The movement begins with a three-note horn call which recurs throughout the song, most notably at the climax in which the singer describes an ape calling "into the sweet fragrance of life."
The second movement, "The lonely one in Autumn" (for alto, in D minor) is a much softer, less turbulent movement. Marked 'somewhat dragging and exhausted', it begins with a repetitive shuffling in the strings, followed by solo wind instruments. The lyrics, which are based on the first part of a Tang Dynasty era poem by Qian Qi, lament the dying of flowers and the passing of beauty, as well as expressing an exhausted longing for sleep. The orchestration in this movement is sparse and chamber music-like, with long and independent contrapuntal lines.
The third movement, "Of Youth" (for tenor, in B♭ major), is the most obviously pentatonic and faux-Asian. The form is ternary, the third part being a greatly abbreviated revision of the first. It is also the shortest of the six movements, and can be considered a first scherzo.
The music of the fourth movement, "Of Beauty" (for alto, in G major), is mostly soft and legato, meditating on the image of some "young girls picking lotus flowers at the riverbank." Later in the movement there is a louder, more articulated section in the brass as the young men ride by on their horses. There is a long orchestral postlude to the sung passage, as the most beautiful of the young maidens looks longingly after the most handsome of the young men.
The second scherzo of the work is provided by the fifth movement, "The drunken man in Spring" (for tenor, in A major). Like the first, it opens with a horn theme. In this movement Mahler uses an extensive variety of key signatures, which can change as often as every few measures. The middle section features a solo violin and solo flute, which represent the bird the singer describes.
The final movement, "The Farewell" (for alto, from C minor to C major), is nearly as long as the previous five movements combined. Its text is drawn from two different poems, both involving the theme of leave-taking. Mahler himself added the last lines. It is also notable for its text-painting, using a mandolin to represent the singer's lute, imitating bird calls with woodwinds, and repeatedly switching between the major and minor modes to articulate sharp contrasts in the text. The movement is divided into three major sections. In the first, the singer describes the nature around her as night falls. In the second, she is waiting for her friend to say a final farewell. A long orchestral interlude precedes the third section, which depicts the exchange between the two friends and fades off into silence. The singer repeats the final word of the song, ‘ewig’ ("forever"), as the music fades into silence, the final sixth chord "printed on the atmosphere" as Benjamin Britten asserted.
It is also worth noting that throughout Das Lied von der Erde there is a persistent message that "The earth will stay beautiful forever, but man cannot live for even a hundred years." At the end of "Der Abschied," however, Mahler adds three original lines which repeat this, but purposefully omit the part saying that "man must die".
The last movement is very difficult to conduct because of its cadenza-like writing for voice and solo instruments, which often flows over the barlines. Mahler specifically instructed the movement to be played 'Ohne Rücksicht auf das Tempo' (Without regard for the tempo). Bruno Walter related that Mahler showed him the score of this movement and asked about one passage, "Can you think of a way of conducting that? Because I can'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.

Libretto + More Information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Das_Lie...