David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center. Orchestra (Seat O104, $66).
Program: All-Mahler (1860-1911).
Kindertotenlieder (1901-04).
Symphony No. 5 in C-sharp minor (1901-02).
Today is March 1, and I have fallen way behind with my blog
entries. I need to write about this
concert, Agrippina and Cosi Fan Tutti at the MET, a New York Phil concert, and
last night’s NJ Symphony concert. And I
want to finish these by the end of today.
(It is 1:30 am now.)
This was our first encounter with Kindertotenlieder. Mahler’s
daughter Maria Anna died in 1907, Mahler remarked later that he could not have
written these songs anymore as the death was too personal. Instead, Mahler might have been motivated by
the early deaths of his own siblings, and the poet Friedrich Ruckert penned several
hundred Kindertotenlieder after two of his own children died.
Romberger had a voice that brought out the emotion such a
situation would cause. She sang with
serenity, resignation, and sadness. The
Program Notes says “despite the despair in Ruckert’s texts, Mahler ends his
cycle with a transcendent vision.” I
didn’t catch that vision, it was heartache throughout.
Gerhild Romberger after singing Mahler's Kindertotenlieder.
The Program lists the songs in German. Here are the English translations (from
Wikipedia):
Now the sun wants to rise as brightly.
Now I see well, why with such dark flames.
When your mama steps in through the door.
I often think: they have only just gone out.
In the weather, in this storm.
Mahler’s Fifth is a symphony I got to know well while in college. The beginning trumpet solo, the adagietto are
among Mahler’s best-known tunes. When
done well, it can paint a lovely landscape.
The Program Notes says this: the trajectory of the work is from darkness
(death in Mahler’s case) to triumphant affirmation.
I described the orchestra’s playing (the day before) of
Dvorak’s Eighth as with “abandon,” and that worked with the first movement, and
not so well with the latter movements.
The orchestra played with the same abandonment, and it mostly didn’t
work. My other observation was “don’t
confuse loudness with musicianship.” If
the length of applause afterwards was any indication, many in the audience
loved it.
Mahler has these long markings for the movements: (i)
Trauermarsch, In gemessernem Schritt.
Streng. Wie ein Kondukt. (ii) Sturmisch begwegt. Mit grosser Vehemenz. (iii) Scherzo. Kraftig, nicht zu schnell. (iv) Adagietto. Sehr langsam.
(v) Rondo-Finale. Allegro. The first movement indeed is a funeral march.
The audience loved the performance of Mahler's Fifth Symphony.
We drove in.
Dinner was at East Szechuan; we hadn't been there for quite a while.
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