Due to a fatal heart condition Mahler knew his days were numbered when he started to compose these pastoral songs, which he never heard performed and were tucked away in his desk atop his unfinished tenth symphony. Inspired by a series of ancient poems entitled “The Chinese Flute”, the songs are a powerful exploration of mortality and transience, using the endless renewal of the earth as a metaphor, and the colors of the orchestra and the vulnerability of the human voice as the vehicle. When asked about the piece Mahler wrote “I believe this is the most personal thing I have done .. something for which there probably are no words.”
"Ms. Mumford was revelatory. Vocally she was secure throughout her range, with dusky depths, ringing heights, and chilling passages of half-sung sprechgesang..." - New York Times
“But the genuine discovery of the evening was the tenor Stuart Skelton, whose powerful, ecstatic voice shone out even in the stormiest raging of Mahler’s score.” – Berliner Zeitung
COMMENTS