1972 Israel LEONARD BERNSTEIN Hebrew PHOTO PROGRAM Pianist MAHLER CONCERT IPO

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Seller: judaica-bookstore ✉️ (2,805) 100%, Location: TEL AVIV, IL, Ships to: WORLDWIDE, Item: 276073838306 1972 Israel LEONARD BERNSTEIN Hebrew PHOTO PROGRAM Pianist MAHLER CONCERT IPO.

DESCRIPTION Up for auction is a UNIQUE MUSIC MEMORABILIA ITEM.  It's a luxurious extensive PHOTO PROGRAM of the 1972 GALA CONCERT with the acclaimed and much beloved JEWISH COMPOSER , PIANIST and CONDUCTOR - LEONARD ( Lenny ) BERNSTEIN. In this festive concert BERNSTEIN was indeed the conductor and the  composer his piece : "THREE MEDITATIONS from MASS" , Beind a WORLD PREMIERE. . In addition MAHLER's "Das Lied Von Der Erde" . The GALA FESTIVE CONCERT took place in the Mann auditorium in TEL AVIV . The VOCAL solists were CHRISTA LUDWIG and RENE KOLLO. The HEBREW - ENGLISH program is a LUXURIOUS PUBLICATION - Throughout illustrated in NUMEROUS PHOTOS of BERNSTEIN , Program notes and articles . Written in ENGLISH and HEBREW.Articles regarding BERNSTEIN and the ENSAMBLE. Original illustrated wrappers . Around  10 x 8 ". 28 unpaged throughout photographed chromo pp excluding the covers . Hebrew & English. Very good used condition . Tightly bound. Clean. Slight cover wear. ( Pls look at scan for accurate AS IS  images )  Will be sent inside a protective rigid sealed packaging  .

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SHIPPMENT : SHIPP worldwide via  registered airmail is $ 25  . Will be sent inside a protective packaging. Handling around 5-10 days after payment. 

Leonard Bernstein (/ˈbɜːrnstaɪn/ BURN-styne;[1] August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American composer, conductor, author, music lecturer, and pianist. He was among the first conductors born and educated in the U.S. to receive worldwide acclaim. According to music critic Donal Henahan, he was "one of the most prodigiously talented and successful musicians in American history."[2] His fame derived from his long tenure as the music director of the New York Philharmonic, from his conducting of concerts with most of the world's leading orchestras, and from his music for West Side Story, Peter Pan,[3] Candide, Wonderful Town, On the Town, On the Waterfront, his Mass, and a range of other compositions, including three symphonies and many shorter chamber and solo works. Bernstein was the first conductor to give a series of television lectures on classical music, starting in 1954 and continuing until his death. He was a skilled pianist,[4] often conducting piano concertos from the keyboard. He was also a critical figure in the modern revival of the music of Gustav Mahler, the composer he was most passionately interested in.[5] As a composer he wrote in many styles encompassing symphonic and orchestral music, ballet, film and theatre music, choral works, opera, chamber music and pieces for the piano. Many of his works are regularly performed around the world, although none has matched the tremendous popular and critical success of West Side Story. Contents 1 Early life 2 Career 2.1 1940–1950 2.2 1951–1959 2.3 1960–1969 2.4 1970–1979 2.5 1980–1990 3 Personal life 3.1 Death and legacy 4 Social activism 4.1 Philanthropy 5 Influence and characteristics as a conductor 6 Recordings 7 Influence and characteristics as a composer 8 Works 8.1 Ballets 8.2 Operas 8.3 Musicals 8.4 Incidental music and other theatre 8.5 Film scores 8.6 Orchestral 8.7 Choral 8.8 Chamber music 8.9 Vocal music 8.10 Piano music 9 Bibliography 10 Videography 11 Awards 12 References 13 Further reading 14 External links Early life[edit] He was born Louis Bernstein in Lawrence, Massachusetts, the son of Ukrainian Jewish parents Jennie (née Resnick) and Samuel Joseph Bernstein, a hairdressing supplies wholesaler originating from Rovno (now Ukraine).[6][7] His family spent their summers at their vacation home in Sharon, Massachusetts. His grandmother insisted that his first name be Louis, but his parents always called him Leonard, which they preferred. He legally changed his name to Leonard when he was fifteen, shortly after his grandmother's death.[8] To his friends and many others he was simply known as "Lenny".[9] His father, Sam Bernstein, was a businessman and owner of a hair product store (no longer standing) in downtown Lawrence on the corners of Amesbury and Essex Streets. Sam initially opposed young Leonard's interest in music. Despite this, the elder Bernstein took him to orchestral concerts in his teenage years and eventually supported his music education. At a very young age, Bernstein listened to a piano performance and was immediately captivated; he subsequently began studying the piano seriously when the family acquired his cousin Lillian Goldman's unwanted piano. Bernstein attended the Garrison Grammar School and Boston Latin School.[10] As a child, he was very close to his younger sister Shirley, and would often play entire operas or Beethoven symphonies with her at the piano. He had a variety of piano teachers in his youth, including Helen Coates, who later became his secretary. After graduation from Boston Latin School in 1935, Bernstein attended Harvard University, where he studied music with, among others, Edward Burlingame Hill and Walter Piston. Although he majored in music with a final year thesis (1939) entitled "The Absorption of Race Elements into American Music" (reproduced in his book Findings), Bernstein's main intellectual influence at Harvard was probably the aesthetics Professor David Prall, whose multidisciplinary outlook on the arts Bernstein shared for the rest of his life. One of his friends at Harvard was philosopher Donald Davidson, with whom he played piano four hands. Bernstein wrote and conducted the musical score for the production Davidson mounted of Aristophanes' play The Birds in the original Greek. Bernstein reused some of this music in the ballet Fancy Free. During his time at Harvard he was briefly an accompanist for the Harvard Glee Club.[11] Bernstein also mounted a student production of The Cradle Will Rock, directing its action from the piano as the composer Marc Blitzstein had done at the premiere. Blitzstein, who heard about the production, subsequently became a friend and influence (both musically and politically) on Bernstein. Bernstein also met the conductor Dimitri Mitropoulos at the time. Although he never taught Bernstein, Mitropoulos's charisma and power as a musician were a major influence on Bernstein's eventual decision to take up conducting. Mitropoulos was not stylistically that similar to Bernstein, but he probably influenced some of Bernstein's later habits such as his conducting from the keyboard, his initial practice of conducting without a baton and perhaps his interest in Mahler. The other important influence that Bernstein first met during his Harvard years was composer Aaron Copland, whom he met at a concert and then at a party afterwards on Copland's birthday in 1938. At the party Bernstein played Copland's Piano Variations, a thorny work Bernstein loved without knowing anything about its composer until that evening. Although he was not formally Copland's student as such, Bernstein would regularly seek advice from Copland in the following years about his own compositions and would often cite him as "his only real composition teacher".[12] After completing his studies at Harvard in 1939 (graduating with a B.A. cum laude), he enrolled at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. During his time at Curtis, Bernstein studied conducting with Fritz Reiner (who anecdotally is said to have given Bernstein the only "A" grade he ever awarded), piano with Isabelle Vengerova,[13] orchestration with Randall Thompson, counterpoint with Richard Stöhr, and score reading with Renée Longy Miquelle.[14] Unlike his years at Harvard, Bernstein appears not to have greatly enjoyed the formal training environment of Curtis, although often in his later life he would mention Reiner when discussing important mentors.[12] Career[edit] 1940–1950[edit] Lenny Bernstein and Benny Goodman in rehearsal, ca. 1940–1949 After he left Curtis, Bernstein lived in New York. He shared an apartment with his friend Adolph Green and often accompanied Green, Betty Comden, and Judy Holliday in a comedy troupe called The Revuers who performed in Greenwich Village. He took jobs with a music publisher, transcribing music or producing arrangements under the pseudonym Lenny Amber. (Bernstein in German = Amber in English.) In 1940, Bernstein began his study at the Boston Symphony Orchestra's summer institute, Tanglewood, in the conducting class of the orchestra's conductor, Serge Koussevitzky. Bernstein's friendships with Copland (who was very close to Koussevitzky) and Mitropoulos were propitious in helping him gain a place in the class. Other students in the class included Lukas Foss, who also became a lifelong friend. Koussevitzky perhaps did not teach Bernstein much basic conducting technique (which he had already developed under Reiner) but instead became a sort of father figure to him and was perhaps the major influence on Bernstein's emotional way of interpreting music. Bernstein later became Koussevitzky's conducting assistant[15] and would later dedicate his Symphony No. 2, The Age of Anxiety, to him.[16] Photo of Bernstein by Carl Van Vechten (1944) Carnegie Hall playbill, November 14, 1943 Radio announcement: 0:00 On November 14, 1943, having recently been appointed assistant conductor to Artur Rodziński of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, he made his major conducting debut at short notice—and without any rehearsal—after guest conductor Bruno Walter came down with the flu.[17] The program included works by Schumann, Miklós Rózsa, Wagner and Richard Strauss's Don Quixote with soloist Joseph Schuster, solo cellist of the orchestra. Before the concert Bernstein briefly spoke to Bruno Walter, who discussed particular difficulties in the works he was to perform. The next day, The New York Times carried the story on its front page and remarked in an editorial, "It's a good American success story. The warm, friendly triumph of it filled Carnegie Hall and spread far over the air waves."[18][19] He became instantly famous because the concert was nationally broadcast on CBS Radio, and afterwards Bernstein started to appear as a guest conductor with many U.S. orchestras. From 1945 to 1947, Bernstein was the Music Director of the New York City Symphony, which had been founded the previous year by the conductor Leopold Stokowski. The orchestra (with support from the Mayor) was aimed at a different audience than the New York Philharmonic, with more modern programs and cheaper tickets.[20] Also in regard to a different audience, in 1945 Bernstein discussed the possibility of acting in a film with Greta Garbo—playing Tchaikovsky opposite her starring role as the composer's patron Nadezhda von Meck.[21] In addition to becoming known as a conductor, Bernstein also emerged as a composer in the same period. In January 1944 he conducted the premiere of his Jeremiah Symphony in Pittsburgh. His score to the ballet Fancy Free choreographed by Jerome Robbins opened in New York in April 1944 and this was later developed into the musical On the Town with lyrics by Comden and Green that opened on Broadway in December 1944. Bernstein conducting the New York City Symphony (1945) Bernstein had asthma, which kept him from serving in the military during World War II.[22] After the war, Bernstein's career on the international stage began to flourish. In 1946, he made his overseas debut with the Czech Philharmonic in Prague. He also recorded Ravel's Piano Concerto in G as soloist and conductor with the Philharmonia Orchestra. On July 4, 1946, Bernstein conducted the European premiere of Fancy Free with the Ballet Theatre at the Royal Opera House in London. In 1946, he conducted opera for the first time, with the American première at Tanglewood of Benjamin Britten's Peter Grimes, which had been a Koussevitzky commission. That same year, Arturo Toscanini invited Bernstein to guest conduct two concerts with the NBC Symphony Orchestra, one of which again featured Bernstein as soloist in the Ravel concerto.[23] In 1947, Bernstein conducted in Tel Aviv for the first time, beginning a lifelong association with Israel. The next year he conducted an open-air concert for troops at Beersheba in the middle of the desert during the Arab-Israeli war. In 1957, he conducted the inaugural concert of the Mann Auditorium in Tel Aviv; he subsequently made many recordings there. In 1967, he conducted a concert on Mount Scopus to commemorate the Reunification of Jerusalem. During the 1970s, Bernstein recorded his symphonies and other works with the Israel Philharmonic for Deutsche Grammophon. The city of Tel Aviv added his name to the Orchestra Plaza in the center the city.[citation needed] On December 10, 1949, he made his first television appearance as conductor with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall. The concert, which also included an address by Eleanor Roosevelt, celebrated the one-year anniversary of the United Nations General Assembly's ratification of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and included the premiere of Aaron Copland's "Preamble" with Sir Laurence Olivier narrating text from the UN Charter. The concert was televised by NBC Television Network.[24] In 1949, he conducted the world première of the Turangalîla-Symphonie by Olivier Messiaen, with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Part of the rehearsal for the concert was recorded and released by the orchestra. When Koussevitzky died two years later, Bernstein became head of the orchestra and conducting departments at Tanglewood. 1951–1959[edit] Bernstein, c. 1950s In 1951, Bernstein conducted the New York Philharmonic in the world première of the Symphony No. 2 of Charles Ives, which was written around half a century earlier but had never been performed. Throughout his career, Bernstein often talked about the music of Ives, who died in 1954. The composer, old and frail, was unable (some reports say unwilling) to attend the concert, but his wife did. He reportedly listened to a radio broadcast of it on a radio in his kitchen some days later. A recording of the "premiere" was released in a 10-CD box set Bernstein LIVE by the orchestra, but the notes indicate it was a repeat performance from three days later, and this is perhaps what Ives heard. In any case, reports also differ on Ives's exact reaction, but some suggest he was thrilled and danced a little jig. Bernstein recorded the 2nd symphony with the Philharmonic in 1958 for Columbia, and in 1987 for Deutsche Grammophon. There is also a 1987 performance with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra available on DVD. Bernstein was a visiting music professor from 1951 to 1956 at Brandeis University, and he founded the Creative Arts Festival there in 1952.[25] He conducted various productions at the first festival, including the premiere of his opera Trouble in Tahiti and Blitzstein's English version of Kurt Weill's Threepenny Opera. The festival was renamed after him in 2005, becoming the Leonard Bernstein Festival of the Creative Arts. In 1953 he was the first American conductor to appear at La Scala in Milan, conducting Maria Callas in Cherubini's Medea. This opera had been virtually abandoned by performers and he learned it in a week. It was to prove a fruitful collaboration, and Callas and Bernstein went on to perform in Bellini's La sonnambula in 1955. That same year, he produced his score to the musical Wonderful Town on very short notice, working again with his old friends Comden and Green, who wrote the lyrics. In 1954 Bernstein presented the first of his television lectures for the CBS arts program Omnibus. The live lecture, entitled "Beethoven's Fifth Symphony", involved Bernstein explaining the work with the aid of musicians from the former NBC Symphony Orchestra (recently renamed the "Symphony of the Air") and a giant page of the score covering the floor. Bernstein subsequently performed concerts with the orchestra and recorded his Serenade for Violin with Isaac Stern. Further Omnibus lectures followed from 1955 to 1958 (later on ABC and then NBC) covering jazz, conducting, American musical comedy, modern music, J.S. Bach, and grand opera. These programs were made available in the U.S. in a DVD set in 2010. Bernstein with members of the New York Philharmonic rehearsing for a television broadcast In late 1956, Bernstein conducted the New York Philharmonic in concerts that were to have been conducted by Guido Cantelli, who had died in an air crash in Paris. This was the first time Bernstein had conducted the orchestra in subscription concerts since 1951. Partly due to these appearances, Bernstein was named the music director of the New York Philharmonic in 1957, replacing Dimitri Mitropoulos. He began his tenure in that position in 1958, having held the post jointly with Mitropoulos from 1957 to 1958. In 1958, Bernstein and Mitropoulos took the New York Philharmonic on tour to South America. In his first season in sole charge, Bernstein included a season-long survey of American classical music.[citation needed] Themed programming of this sort was fairly novel at that time compared to the present day. Bernstein held the music directorship until 1969 (with a sabbatical in 1965) although he continued to conduct and make recordings with the orchestra for the rest of his life and was appointed "laureate conductor". He became a well-known figure in the United States through his series of fifty-three televised Young People's Concerts for CBS, which grew out of his Omnibus programs. His first Young People's Concert was televised a few weeks after his tenure began as principal conductor of the New York Philharmonic. He became as famous for his educational work in those concerts as for his conducting. The Bernstein Young People's Concerts were the first and probably the most influential series of music appreciation programs ever produced on television, and they were highly acclaimed by critics.[26] Some of Bernstein's music lectures were released on records; a recording of Humor in Music was awarded a Grammy award for Best Documentary or Spoken Word Recording (other than comedy) in 1961.[27] The programs were shown in many countries around the world, often with Bernstein dubbed into other languages. All of them were released on DVD by Kultur Video (half of them in 2013). Bernstein at the piano, making annotations to a musical score Around the time he was appointed music director of the New York Philharmonic, and living opposite Carnegie Hall at The Osborne,[28] Bernstein composed the music for two shows. The first was for the operetta Candide, which was first performed in 1956 with a libretto by Lillian Hellman based on Voltaire's novella. The second was Bernstein's collaboration with the choreographer Jerome Robbins, the writer Arthur Laurents, and the lyricist Stephen Sondheim to produce the musical West Side Story. The first three had worked on it intermittently since Robbins first suggested the idea in 1949. Finally, with the addition of Sondheim to the team and a period of concentrated effort, it received its Broadway premiere in 1957 and has since proven to be Bernstein's most popular and enduring score. In 1959, he took the New York Philharmonic on a tour of Europe and the Soviet Union, portions of which were filmed by CBS Television. A highlight of the tour was Bernstein's performance of Dmitri Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony, in the presence of the composer, who came on stage at the end to congratulate Bernstein and the musicians. In October, when Bernstein and the orchestra returned to the U.S., they recorded the symphony for Columbia. He recorded it for a second time with the orchestra on tour in Japan in 1979. Bernstein seems to have limited himself to only conducting certain Shostakovich symphonies, namely the numbers 1, 5, 6, 7, 9, and 14. He made two recordings of Shostakovich's Leningrad Symphony (No. 7), one with the New York Philharmonic in the 1960s and another recorded live in 1988 with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (one of the few recordings he made with them, also including the Symphony No. 1). 1960–1969[edit] In 1960 Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic held a Mahler Festival to mark the centenary of the composer's birth. Bernstein, Walter and Mitropoulos conducted performances. The composer's widow, Alma, attended some of Bernstein's rehearsals. In 1960 Bernstein also made his first commercial recording of a Mahler symphony (the Fourth) and over the next seven years he made the first complete cycle of recordings of all nine of Mahler's completed symphonies. (All featured the New York Philharmonic except the 8th Symphony which was recorded with the London Symphony Orchestra following a concert in the Royal Albert Hall in London in 1966.) The success of these recordings, along with Bernstein's concert performances and television talks, was an important, if not vital, part of the revival of interest in Mahler in the 1960s, especially in the U.S. Bernstein claimed that he identified with the works on a personal level, and once said of the composer: [He] showered a rain of beauty on this world that has not been equaled since.[29] Leonard Bernstein during a visit to Finland, 1959 Other non-U.S. composers that Bernstein championed to some extent at the time include the Danish composer Carl Nielsen (who was then only little known in the U.S.) and Jean Sibelius, whose popularity had by then started to fade. Bernstein eventually recorded a complete cycle in New York of Sibelius's symphonies and three of Nielsen's symphonies (Nos. 2, 4, and 5), as well as conducting recordings of his violin, clarinet and flute concertos. He also recorded Nielsen's 3rd Symphony with the Royal Danish Orchestra after a critically acclaimed public performance in Denmark. Bernstein championed U.S. composers, especially those that he was close to like Aaron Copland, William Schuman and David Diamond. He also started to more extensively record his own compositions for Columbia Records. This included his three symphonies, his ballets, and the Symphonic Dances from West Side Story with the New York Philharmonic. He also conducted an LP of his 1944 musical On The Town, the first (almost) complete recording of the original featuring several members of the original Broadway cast, including Betty Comden and Adolph Green. (The 1949 film version only contains four of Bernstein's original numbers.) Bernstein also collaborated with the experimental jazz pianist and composer Dave Brubeck resulting in the recording Bernstein Plays Brubeck Plays Bernstein (1961). In one oft-reported incident, in April 1962 Bernstein appeared on stage before a performance of the Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor with the pianist Glenn Gould. During rehearsals, Gould had argued for tempi much broader than normal, which did not reflect Bernstein's concept of the music. Bernstein gave a brief address to the audience starting with "Don't be frightened; Mr Gould is here..." and going on to "In a concerto, who is the boss (audience laughter)—the soloist or the conductor?" (Audience laughter grows louder). The answer is, of course, sometimes the one and sometimes the other, depending on the people involved."[30] This speech was subsequently interpreted by Harold C. Schonberg, music critic for The New York Times, as abdication of personal responsibility and an attack on Gould, whose performance Schonberg went on to criticize heavily. Bernstein always denied that this had been his intent and has stated that he made these remarks with Gould's blessing.[31] In the book Dinner with Lenny, published in October 2013, author Jonathan Cott provided a thorough debunking, in the conductor's own words, of the legend which Bernstein himself described in the book as "one ... that won't go away". Throughout his life, he professed admiration and friendship for Gould. Schonberg was often (though not always) harshly critical of Bernstein as a conductor during his tenure as music director. However, his views were not shared by the audiences (with many full houses) and probably not by the musicians themselves (who had greater financial security arising from Bernstein's many TV and recording activities amongst other things). In 1962 the New York Philharmonic moved from Carnegie Hall to Philharmonic Hall (now David Geffen Hall) in the new Lincoln Center. The move was not without controversy because of acoustic problems with the new hall. Bernstein conducted the gala opening concert featuring vocal works by Mahler, Beethoven and Vaughan Williams, and the premiere of Aaron Copland's Connotations, a serial-work that was merely politely received. During the intermission Bernstein kissed the cheek of the President's wife Jacqueline Kennedy, a break with protocol that was commented on at the time. In 1961 Bernstein had conducted at President John F. Kennedy's pre-inaugural gala, and he was an occasional guest in the White House. Years later he conducted at the funeral mass in 1968 for President Kennedy's brother Robert Kennedy, featuring the Adagietto from Mahler's 5th Symphony. Jackie Kennedy famously wrote to Bernstein after the event: When your Mahler started to fill (but that is the wrong word — because it was more this sensitive trembling) the Cathedral today — I thought it the most beautiful music I had ever heard.[32] Bernstein in Amsterdam, 1968 On November 23, 1963, the day after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Leonard Bernstein conducted the New York Philharmonic and the Schola Cantorum of New York in a nationally televised memorial featuring the "Resurrection Symphony" by Gustav Mahler. This was the first televised performance of the complete symphony. Mahler's music had never been performed for such an event, and since the tribute to JFK, Mahler symphonies have become part of the Philharmonic's standard repertoire for national mourning.[33] In 1964 Bernstein conducted Franco Zeffirelli's production of Verdi's Falstaff at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. In 1966 he made his debut at the Vienna State Opera conducting Luchino Visconti's production of the same opera with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau as Falstaff. During his time in Vienna he also recorded the opera for Columbia Records and conducted his first subscription concert with the Vienna Philharmonic (which is made up of players from the Vienna State Opera) featuring Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde with Fischer-Dieskau and James King. He returned to the State Opera in 1968 for a production of Der Rosenkavalier and in 1970 for Otto Schenk's production of Beethoven's Fidelio. Sixteen years later, at the State Opera, Bernstein conducted his sequel to Trouble in Tahiti, A Quiet Place, with the ORF orchestra. Bernstein's final farewell to the State Opera happened accidentally in 1989: following a performance of Modest Mussorgsky's Khovanshchina, he unexpectedly entered the stage and embraced conductor Claudio Abbado in front of a cheering audience. With his commitment to the New York Philharmonic and his many other activities, Bernstein had little time for composition during the 1960s. The two major works he produced at this time were his Kaddish Symphony, dedicated to the recently assassinated President John F. Kennedy, and the Chichester Psalms, which he produced during a sabbatical year he took from the Philharmonic in 1965 to concentrate on composition. Wanting to make more time for composition was probably a major factor in his decision to step down as Music Director of the Philharmonic in 1969, and to never again accept such a position elsewhere. 1970–1979[edit] Leonard Bernstein by Allan Warren After stepping down from the New York Philharmonic, Bernstein continued to appear with them in most years until his death, and he toured with them to Europe in 1976 and to Asia in 1979. He also strengthened his relationship with the Vienna Philharmonic—he conducted all nine completed Mahler symphonies with them (plus the Adagio from the 10th) in the period from 1967 to 1976. All of these were filmed for Unitel with the exception of the 1967 Mahler 2nd, which instead Bernstein filmed with the London Symphony Orchestra in Ely Cathedral in 1973. In the late 1970s Bernstein conducted a complete Beethoven symphony cycle with the Vienna Philharmonic, and cycles of Brahms and Schumann were to follow in the 1980s. Other orchestras he conducted on numerous occasions in the 1970s include the Israel Philharmonic, the Orchestre National de France, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. In 1970 Bernstein wrote and narrated a ninety-minute program filmed on location in and around Vienna as a celebration of Beethoven's 200th birthday. It featured parts of Bernstein's rehearsals and performance for the Otto Schenk production of Fidelio, Bernstein playing the 1st piano concerto and conducting the Ninth Symphony with the Vienna Philharmonic, with the young Plácido Domingo amongst the soloists. The program was first telecast in 1970 on Austrian and British television, and then on CBS in the U.S. on Christmas Eve 1971. The show, originally entitled Beethoven's Birthday: A Celebration in Vienna, won an Emmy and was issued on DVD in 2005. In the summer of 1970, during the Festival of London, he conducted Verdi's Requiem Mass in St. Paul's Cathedral, with the London Symphony Orchestra. Bernstein's major compositions during the 1970s were his Mass: A Theatre Piece for Singers, Players, and Dancers; his score for the ballet Dybbuk; his orchestral vocal work Songfest; and his U.S. bicentenary musical 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue written with lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner which was his first real theatrical flop, and last original Broadway show. The world premiere of Bernstein's MASS took place on September 8, 1971. Commissioned by Jacqueline Kennedy for the opening of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., it was partly intended as an anti-war statement. Hastily written in places, the work represented a fusion not only of different religious traditions (Latin liturgy, Hebrew prayer, and plenty of contemporary English lyrics) but also of different musical styles, including classical and rock music. It was originally a target of criticism from the Roman Catholic Church on the one hand and contemporary music critics who objected to its Broadway/populist elements on the other. In the present day, it is perhaps seen as less blasphemous and more a piece of its era: in 2000 it was even performed in the Vatican. In 1972 Bernstein recorded Bizet's Carmen, with Marilyn Horne in the title role and James McCracken as Don Jose, after leading several stage performances of the opera at the Metropolitan Opera. The recording was one of the first in stereo to use the original spoken dialogue between the sung portions of the opera, rather than the musical recitatives that were composed by Ernest Guiraud after Bizet's death. The recording was Bernstein's first for Deutsche Grammophon and won a Grammy. Bernstein was appointed in 1973 to the Charles Eliot Norton Chair as Professor of Poetry at his alma mater, Harvard University, and delivered a series of six televised lectures on music with musical examples played by the Boston Symphony Orchestra. However, these lectures were not televised until 1976. Taking the title from a Charles Ives work, he called the series The Unanswered Question; it was a set of interdisciplinary lectures in which he borrowed terminology from contemporary linguistics to analyze and compare musical construction to language. The lectures are presently available in both book and DVD form. The DVD video was not taken directly from the lectures at Harvard, rather they were recreated again at the WGBH studios for filming. This appears to be the only surviving Norton lectures series available to the general public in video format. Noam Chomsky wrote in 2007 on the Znet forums about the linguistic aspects of the lecture: "I spent some time with Bernstein during the preparation and performance of the lectures. My feeling was that he was onto something, but I couldn't really judge how significant it was." Bernstein played an instrumental role in the exiling of the world-renowned cellist and conductor, Mstislav Rostropovich, from the USSR in 1974. Rostropovich, a strong believer in free speech and democracy, was officially held in disgrace, his concerts and tours both at home and abroad cancelled, and in 1972 he was prohibited to travel outside of Russia. During a trip to USSR in 1974, Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy and his wife Joan, urged by Bernstein and others in the cultural scene, brought up Rostropovich's situation to Soviet Union Communist Party Leader Leonid Brezhnev. Two days later, Rostropovich was granted his exit visa.[34][35] Chevy Chase states in his biography that Lorne Michaels wanted Bernstein to host Saturday Night Live in the show's first season (1975–76). Chase was seated next to Bernstein at a birthday party for Kurt Vonnegut and made the request in person. However, the pitch involved a Bernstein-conducted SNL version of West Side Story, and Bernstein was uninterested.[36] In October 1976, Leonard Bernstein led the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and legendary pianist Claudio Arrau in an Amnesty International Benefit Concert in Munich. To honor his late wife and to continue their joint struggle for human rights, Leonard Bernstein established the Felicia Montealegre Bernstein Fund of Amnesty International USA to provide support for human rights activists who have few resources beyond personal dedication.[37] In 1978, Bernstein returned to the Vienna State Opera to conduct a revival of the Otto Schenk production of Fidelio, now featuring Gundula Janowitz and René Kollo in the lead roles. At the same time, Bernstein made a studio recording of the opera for Deutsche Grammophon and the opera itself was filmed by Unitel and released on DVD by Deutsche Grammophon in late 2006. In May 1978, the Israel Philharmonic played two U.S. concerts under his direction to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the founding of the Orchestra under that name. On consecutive nights, the Orchestra, with the Choral Arts Society of Washington, performed Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and Bernstein's Chichester Psalms at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and at Carnegie Hall in New York. In 1979, Bernstein conducted the Berlin Philharmonic for the first time, in two charity concerts for Amnesty International involving performances of Mahler's Ninth Symphony. The invitation for the concerts had come from the orchestra and not from its principal conductor Herbert von Karajan. There has been speculation about why Karajan never invited Bernstein to conduct his orchestra. (Karajan did conduct the New York Philharmonic during Bernstein's tenure.) The full reasons will probably never be known—reports suggest they were on friendly terms when they met, but sometimes practiced a little mutual one-upmanship.[38] One of the concerts was broadcast on radio and was posthumously released on CD by Deutsche Grammophon. One oddity of the recording is that the trombone section fails to enter at the climax of the finale, as a result of an audience member fainting just behind the trombones a few seconds earlier. 1980–1990[edit] Bernstein received the Kennedy Center Honors award in 1980. For the rest of the 1980s he continued to conduct, teach, compose, and produce the occasional TV documentary. His most significant compositions of the decade were probably his opera A Quiet Place, which he wrote with Stephen Wadsworth and which premiered (in its original version) in Houston in 1983; his Divertimento for Orchestra; his Ḥalil for flute and orchestra; his Concerto for Orchestra "Jubilee Games"; and his song cycle Arias and Barcarolles, which was named after a comment President Dwight D. Eisenhower had made to him in 1960. Bernstein with Maximilian Schell on PBS Beethoven TV series (1982) In 1982 in the U.S., PBS aired an 11-part series of Bernstein's late 1970s films for Unitel of the Vienna Philharmonic playing all nine Beethoven symphonies and various other Beethoven works. Bernstein gave spoken introduction and actor Maximilian Schell was also featured on the programs, reading from Beethoven's letters.[39] The original films have since been released on DVD by Deutsche Grammophon. In addition to conducting in New York, Vienna and Israel, Bernstein was a regular guest conductor of other orchestras in the 1980s. These included the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam, with whom he recorded Mahler's First, Fourth, and Ninth Symphonies amongst other works; the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in Munich, with whom he recorded Wagner's Tristan und Isolde; Haydn's Creation; Mozart's Requiem and Great Mass in C minor; and the orchestra of Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, with whom he recorded some Debussy and Puccini's La bohème. In 1982, he and Ernest Fleischmann founded the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute as a summer training academy along the lines of Tanglewood. Bernstein served as artistic director and taught conducting there until 1984. Around the same time, he performed and recorded some of his own works with the Los Angeles Philharmonic for Deutsche Grammophon. Bernstein was also at the time a committed supporter of nuclear disarmament. In 1985 he took the European Community Youth Orchestra in a "Journey for Peace" tour around Europe and to Japan. In 1985, he conducted a recording of West Side Story, the first time he had conducted the entire work. The recording, featuring what some critics felt were miscast opera singers such as Kiri Te Kanawa, José Carreras, and Tatiana Troyanos in the leading roles, was nevertheless an international bestseller. A TV documentary showing the making of the recording was made at the same time and is available on DVD. Bernstein also continued to make his own TV documentaries during the 1980s, including The Little Drummer Boy, in which he discussed the music of Gustav Mahler, perhaps the composer he was most passionately interested in, and The Love of Three Orchestras, in which he discussed his work in New York, Vienna, and Israel. In his later years, Bernstein's life and work were celebrated around the world (as they have been since his death). The Israel Philharmonic celebrated his involvement with them at festivals in Israel and Austria in 1977. In 1986 the London Symphony Orchestra mounted a Bernstein Festival in London with one concert that Bernstein himself conducted attended by the Queen. In 1988 Bernstein's 70th birthday was celebrated by a lavish televised gala at Tanglewood featuring many performers who had worked with him over the years. During summer 1987, he celebrated the 100th anniversary of Nadia Boulanger at the American Conservatory in Fontainebleau. He gave a prodigious masterclass Inside the castle of Fontainebleau.[citation needed] In December 1989, Bernstein conducted live performances and recorded in the studio his operetta Candide with the London Symphony Orchestra. The recording starred Jerry Hadley, June Anderson, Adolph Green, and Christa Ludwig in the leading roles. The use of opera singers in some roles perhaps fitted the style of operetta better than some critics had thought was the case for West Side Story, and the recording (released posthumously in 1991) was universally praised. One of the live concerts from the Barbican Centre in London is available on DVD. Candide had had a troubled history, with many rewrites and writers involved. Bernstein's concert and recording were based on a "final" version that had been first performed by Scottish Opera in 1988. The opening night (which Bernstein attended in Glasgow) was conducted by Bernstein's former student John Mauceri. On December 25, 1989, Bernstein conducted Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 in East Berlin's Schauspielhaus as part of a celebration of the fall of the Berlin Wall. He had conducted the same work in West Berlin the previous day. The concert was broadcast live in more than twenty countries to an estimated audience of 100 million people. For the occasion, Bernstein reworded Friedrich Schiller's text of the Ode to Joy, substituting the word Freiheit (freedom) for Freude (joy).[40] Bernstein, in his spoken introduction, said that they had "taken the liberty" of doing this because of a "most likely phony" story, apparently believed in some quarters, that Schiller wrote an "Ode to Freedom" that is now presumed lost. Bernstein added, "I'm sure that Beethoven would have given us his blessing." In the summer of 1990, Bernstein and Michael Tilson Thomas founded the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan. Like his earlier activity in Los Angeles, this was a summer training school for musicians modeled on Tanglewood, and is still in existence. Bernstein was already at this time suffering from the lung disease that would lead to his death. In his opening address Bernstein said that he had decided to devote what time he had left to education. A video showing Bernstein speaking and rehearsing at the first Festival is available on DVD in Japan. In 1990, Leonard Bernstein received the Praemium Imperiale, an international prize awarded by the Japan Arts Association for lifetime achievement in the arts. Bernstein used the $100,000 prize to establish The Bernstein Education Through the Arts (BETA) Fund, Inc.[41] He provided this grant to develop an arts-based education program. The Leonard Bernstein Center was established in April 1992, and initiated extensive school-based research, resulting in the Bernstein Model, the Leonard Bernstein Artful Learning Program.[42] Bernstein made his final performance as a conductor at Tanglewood on August 19, 1990, with the Boston Symphony Orchestra playing Benjamin Britten's "Four Sea Interludes" from Peter Grimes, and Beethoven's Symphony No. 7.[43] He suffered a coughing fit during the third movement of the Beethoven symphony, but continued to conduct the piece until its conclusion, leaving the stage during the ovation, appearing exhausted and in pain.[44] The concert was later issued on CD as Leonard Bernstein – The Final Concert by Deutsche Grammophon (catalog number 431 768).[45] Personal life[edit] After much personal struggle and a turbulent on-off engagement, Bernstein married actress Felicia Cohn Montealegre on September 10, 1951. One suggestion is that he chose to marry partly to dispel rumors about his private life to help secure a major conducting appointment, following advice from his mentor Dimitri Mitropoulos about the conservative nature of orchestra boards.[38] In a book released in October 2013, The Leonard Bernstein Letters, his wife acknowledges his homosexuality. Felicia writes: "you are a homosexual and may never change—you don't admit to the possibility of a double life, but if your peace of mind, your health, your whole nervous system depend on a certain sexual pattern what can you do?" Arthur Laurents (Bernstein's collaborator in West Side Story) said that Bernstein was "a gay man who got married. He wasn't conflicted about it at all. He was just gay."[46] Shirley Rhoades Perle, another friend of Bernstein, said that she thought "he required men sexually and women emotionally."[47] But the early years of his marriage seem to have been happy, and no one has suggested Bernstein and his wife did not love each other. They had three children, Jamie, Alexander, and Nina.[48] There are reports, though, that Bernstein did sometimes have brief extramarital liaisons with young men, which several family friends have said his wife knew about.[47] A major period of upheaval in Bernstein's personal life began in 1976 when he decided that he could no longer conceal his homosexuality and he left his wife Felicia for a period to live with the musical director of the classical music radio station KKHI-FM in San Francisco, Tom Cothran.[49] The next year Felicia was diagnosed with lung cancer and eventually Bernstein moved back in with her and cared for her until she died on June 16, 1978.[38] Bernstein is reported to have often spoken of his terrible guilt over his wife's death.[38] Most biographies of Bernstein state that his lifestyle became more excessive and his personal behavior sometimes more reckless and crude after her death. However, his public standing and many of his close friendships appear to have remained unaffected, and he resumed his busy schedule of musical activity. His affairs with men included a ten-year relationship with Kunihiko Hashimoto, a Tokyo insurance employee. The two met when the New York Philharmonic was performing in Tokyo. Hashimoto went backstage and they ended up spending the night together. It was a long distance affair, but according to letters, they both cared about each other deeply. Dearest Lenny: Letters from Japan and the Making of the World Maestro by Mari Yoshihara (Oxford University Press, 2019) goes into detail about their letters and relationship including interviews with Hashimoto. The book also includes other letters Bernstein received from Japanese fans.[50] Bernstein's grave in Green-Wood Cemetery Death and legacy[edit] Bernstein announced his retirement from conducting on October 9, 1990,[51] and died at his apartment at The Dakota of a heart attack five days later, brought on by mesothelioma.[52] He was 72 years old.[2] A longtime heavy smoker, he had emphysema from his mid-50s. On the day of his funeral procession through the streets of Manhattan, construction workers removed their hats and waved, calling out "Goodbye, Lenny."[53] Bernstein is buried in Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York,[54] next to his wife and with a copy of Mahler's Fifth Symphony lying across his heart.[55] On August 25, 2018 (his 100th birthday), he was honored with a Google Doodle.[56] Also for his centennial, the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles created an exhibition titled Leonard Bernstein at 100.[57][58] [59] Social activism[edit] While Bernstein was very well known for his music compositions and conducting, he was also known for his outspoken political views and his strong desire to further social change. His first aspirations for social change were made apparent in his producing (as a student) a recently banned opera, The Cradle Will Rock, by Marc Blitzstein, about the disparity between the working and upper class. His first opera, Trouble in Tahiti, was dedicated to Blitzstein and has a strong social theme, criticizing American civilization and suburban upper-class life in particular. As he went on in his career, Bernstein would go on to fight for everything from the influences of "American Music" to the disarming of western nuclear weapons.[60] Like many of his friends and colleagues, Bernstein had been involved in various left-wing causes and organizations since the 1940s. He was blacklisted by the US State Department and CBS in the early 1950s, but unlike others his career was not greatly affected, and he was never required to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee.[61] His political life received substantial press coverage though in 1970, due to a gathering hosted at his Manhattan apartment at 895 Park Avenue[62] on January 14, 1970. Bernstein and his wife held the event seeking to raise awareness and money for the defense of several members of the Black Panther Party against a variety of charges, especially the case of the Panther 21.[63] The New York Times initially covered the gathering as a lifestyle item, but later posted an editorial harshly unfavorable to Bernstein following generally negative reaction to the widely publicized story.[64][65] This reaction culminated in June 1970 with the appearance of "Radical Chic: That Party at Lenny's", an essay by journalist Tom Wolfe featured on the cover of the magazine New York.[66] The article contrasted the Bernsteins' comfortable lifestyle in one of the world's most expensive neighborhoods with the anti-establishment politics of the Black Panthers. It led to the popularization of "radical chic" as a critical term.[67] Both Bernstein and his wife Felicia responded to the criticism, arguing that they were motivated not by a shallow desire to express fashionable sympathy but by their concern for civil liberties.[68][69] Bernstein was named in the book Red Channels: The Report of Communist Influence in Radio and Television (1950) as a Communist along with Aaron Copland, Lena Horne, Pete Seeger, Artie Shaw and other prominent figures of the performing arts. Red Channels was issued by the right-wing journal Counterattack and was edited by Vincent Hartnett, who was later found to have libeled and defamed the noted radio personality John Henry Faulk.[70][71][72] Philanthropy[edit] Among the many awards Bernstein earned throughout his life, one allowed him to make one of his philanthropic dreams a reality. He had for a long time wanted to develop an international school to help promote the integration of arts into education. When he won the Praemium Imperiale, Japan Arts Association award for lifetime achievement in 1990,[73] he used the $100,000 that came with the award to build such a school in Nashville, that would strive to teach teachers how to better integrate music, dance, and theater into the school system which was "not working".[74] Unfortunately, the school was not able to open until shortly after Bernstein's death. This would eventually yield an initiative known as Artful Learning as part of the Leonard Bernstein Center.[75][76] Influence and characteristics as a conductor[edit] Leonard Bernstein in rehearsal of his "Mass", 1971 Bernstein was one of the major figures in orchestral conducting in the second half of the 20th century. He was held in high regard amongst many musicians, including the members of the Vienna Philharmonic, evidenced by his honorary membership; the London Symphony Orchestra, of which he was president; and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, with which he appeared regularly as guest conductor. He was probably the main conductor from the 1960s onwards who acquired a sort of superstar status similar to that of Herbert von Karajan, although unlike Karajan he conducted relatively little opera and part of Bernstein's fame was based on his role as a composer. As the first American-born music director of the New York Philharmonic, his rise to prominence was a factor in overcoming the perception of the time that the top conductors were necessarily trained in Europe. Bernstein's conducting was characterized by extremes of emotion with the rhythmic pulse of the music conveyed visually through his balletic podium manner. Musicians often reported that his manner in rehearsal was the same as in concert. As he got older his performances tended to be overlaid to a greater extent with a personal expressiveness which often divided critical opinion. Extreme examples of this style can be found in his Deutsche Grammophon recordings of "Nimrod" from Elgar's Enigma Variations (1982), the end of Mahler's 9th Symphony (1985), and the finale of Tchaikovsky's Pathétique Symphony (1986), where in each case the tempos are well below those typically chosen. Bernstein performed a wide repertoire from the Baroque era to the 20th century, although perhaps from the 1970s onwards he tended to focus more on music from the Romantic era. He was considered especially accomplished with the works of Gustav Mahler and with American composers in general, including George Gershwin, Aaron Copland, Charles Ives, Roy Harris, William Schuman, and of course himself. Some of his recordings of works by these composers would likely appear on many music critics' lists of recommended recordings. A list of his other well-thought-of recordings would probably include individual works from Haydn, Beethoven, Berlioz, Schumann, Liszt, Nielsen, Sibelius, Stravinsky, Hindemith, and Shostakovich, among others.[77] His recordings of Rhapsody in Blue (full-orchestra version) and An American in Paris for Columbia Records, released in 1959, are considered definitive by many, although Bernstein cut the Rhapsody slightly, and his more 'symphonic' approach with slower tempi is quite far from Gershwin's own conception of the piece, evident from his two recordings. (Oscar Levant, Earl Wild, and others come closer to Gershwin's own style.) Bernstein never conducted Gershwin's Piano Concerto in F, or more than a few excerpts from Porgy and Bess, although he did discuss the latter in his article Why Don't You Run Upstairs and Write a Nice Gershwin Tune?, originally published in The New York Times and later reprinted in his 1959 book The Joy of Music. In addition to being an active conductor, Bernstein was an influential teacher of conducting. During his many years of teaching at Tanglewood and elsewhere, he directly taught or mentored many conductors who are performing now, including John Mauceri, Marin Alsop, Herbert Blomstedt, Edo de Waart, Alexander Frey, Paavo Järvi, Eiji Oue, Maurice Peress, Seiji Ozawa (who made his American TV debut as the guest conductor on one of the Young People's Concerts), Carl St.Clair, Helmuth Rilling, Michael Tilson Thomas, and Jaap van Zweden. He also undoubtedly influenced the career choices of many American musicians who grew up watching his television programmes in the 1950s and 60s. Recordings[edit] Audio recording for CBS of the Symphony No. 3 by Danish composer Carl Nielsen in Copenhagen, 1965 Bernstein recorded extensively from the mid-1940s until just a few months before his death. Aside from those 1940s recordings, which were made for RCA Victor, Bernstein recorded primarily for Columbia Masterworks Records, especially when he was music director of the New York Philharmonic between 1958 and 1971. His typical pattern of recording at that time was to record major works in the studio immediately after they were presented in the orchestra's subscription concerts or on one of the Young People's Concerts, with any spare time used to record short orchestral showpieces and similar works. Many of these performances were digitally remastered and reissued by Sony Classical Records (the successor to American Columbia/CBS Masterworks following Sony's 1990 acquisition of Columbia/CBS Records) between 1992 and 1993 as part of its 100 volume, 125-CD "Royal Edition", as well as its 1997–2001 "Bernstein Century" series. The rights to Bernstein's 1940s RCA Victor recordings became fully owned by Sony following its 2008 acquisition of Bertelsmann Music Group's (BMG), and now controls both the RCA Victor and Columbia archives. The complete Bernstein Columbia and RCA Victor catalog was reissued on CD in a three-volume series of box sets (released in 2010, 2014, and 2018, respectively) comprising a total of 198 discs under the mantle "Leonard Bernstein Edition". His later recordings (starting with Bizet's Carmen in 1972) were mostly made for Deutsche Grammophon, though he would occasionally return to the Columbia label. Notable exceptions include recordings of Gustav Mahler's Song of the Earth and Mozart's 15th piano concerto and "Linz" symphony with the Vienna Philharmonic for Decca Records (1966); Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique and Harold in Italy (1976) for EMI; and Wagner's Tristan und Isolde (1981) for Philips Records, a label that like Deutsche Grammophon was part of PolyGram at that time. Unlike his studio recordings for Columbia Masterworks, most of his later Deutsche Grammophon recordings were taken from live concerts (or edited together from several concerts with additional sessions to correct errors). Many replicate repertoire that he recorded in the 1950s and 60s. In addition to his audio recordings, many of Bernstein's concerts from the 1970s onwards were recorded on motion picture film by the German film company Unitel. This included a complete cycle of the Mahler symphonies (with the Vienna Philharmonic and London Symphony Orchestra), as well as complete cycles of the Beethoven, Brahms and Schumann symphonies recorded at the same series of concerts as the audio recordings by Deutsche Grammophon. Many of these films appeared on Laserdisc and are now on DVD. In total Bernstein was awarded 16 Grammys for his recordings in various categories, including several for posthumously released recordings. He was also awarded a Lifetime Achievement Grammy in 1985. Influence and characteristics as a composer[edit] Bernstein was an eclectic composer whose music fused elements of jazz, Jewish music, theatre music and the work of earlier composers like Aaron Copland, Igor Stravinsky, Darius Milhaud, George Gershwin, and Marc Blitzstein. Some of his works, especially his score for West Side Story, helped bridge the gap between classical and popular music. His music was rooted in tonality but in some works like his Kaddish Symphony and the opera A Quiet Place he mixed in 12-tone elements. Bernstein himself said his main motivation for composing was "to communicate" and that all his pieces, including his symphonies and concert works, "could in some sense be thought of as 'theatre' pieces."[78] Place Léonard-Bernstein, a square in the 12th arrondissement of Paris According to the League of American Orchestras,[79] he was the second most frequently performed American composer by U.S. orchestras in 2008–09 behind Copland, and he was the 16th most frequently performed composer overall by U.S. orchestras. (Some performances were probably due to the 2008 90th anniversary of his birth.) His most popular pieces were the Overture to Candide, the Symphonic Dances from West Side Story, the Serenade after Plato's "Symposium" and the Three Dance Episodes from On the Town. His shows West Side Story, On the Town, Wonderful Town and Candide are regularly performed, and his symphonies and concert works are programmed from time to time by orchestras around the world. Since his death many of his works have been commercially recorded by artists other than himself. The Serenade, which has been recorded more than 10 times, is probably his most recorded work not taken from an actual theatre piece. Despite the fact that he was a popular success as a composer, Bernstein himself is reported to have been disillusioned that some of his more serious works were not rated more highly by critics, and that he himself had not been able to devote more time to composing because of his conducting and other activities.[53] Professional criticism of Bernstein's music often involves discussing the degree to which he created something new as art versus simply skillfully borrowing and fusing together elements from others. In the late 1960s, Bernstein himself reflected that his eclecticism was in part due to his lack of lengthy periods devoted to composition, and that he was still seeking to enrich his own personal musical language in the manner of the great composers of the past, all of whom had borrowed elements from others.[80] Perhaps the harshest criticism he received from some critics in his lifetime though was directed at works like his Kaddish Symphony, his MASS and the opera A Quiet Place, where they found the underlying message of the piece or the text as either mildly embarrassing, clichéd or offensive. Despite this, all these pieces have been performed, discussed and reconsidered since his death. Bernstein's works were performed several times for Pope John Paul II, including at World Youth Day in Denver on August 14, 1993 (excerpts from MASS), and at the Papal Concert to Commemorate the Shoah on April 7, 1994, with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (Chichester Psalms and Symphony No. 3, Kaddish [excerpt]) in the Sala Nervi at the Vatican. Both performances were conducted by Gilbert Levine. Although he taught conducting, Bernstein was not a teacher of composition as such, and he has no direct composing heirs. Perhaps the closest are composers like John Adams, who from the 1970s onwards indirectly adopted elements of his eclectic, theatrical style. Works[edit] Main article: List of compositions by Leonard Bernstein Ballets[edit] Fancy Free, 1944 Dybbuk (ballet), 1974 Operas[edit] Trouble in Tahiti, 1951 Candide, 1956 (new libretto in 1973, operetta final revised version in 1989) A Quiet Place, 1983, revised in 1986 Musicals[edit] On The Town, 1944 Wonderful Town, 1953 West Side Story, 1957 The Race to Urga (incomplete), 1969 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, 1976 A Party with Betty Comden and Adolph Green, 1977 The Madwoman of Central Park West, (contributed to) 1979 Incidental music and other theatre[edit] Peter Pan, 1950 The Lark, 1955 The Firstborn, 1958 MASS (theatre piece for singers, players and dancers), 1971 Side by Side by Sondheim* 1976 Film scores[edit] On the Town, 1949 (only part of his music was used) On the Waterfront, 1954 (soundtrack) West Side Story, 1961 Orchestral[edit] Symphony No. 1 Jeremiah, 1942 Symphony No. 2 The Age of Anxiety, (after W. H. Auden) for piano and orchestra, 1949 (revised in 1965) Serenade after Plato's "Symposium" for solo violin, strings, harp and percussion, 1954 Prelude, Fugue, and Riffs for solo clarinet and jazz ensemble, 1949 Symphony No. 3 Kaddish, for orchestra, mixed chorus, boys' choir, speaker and soprano solo, 1963 (revised in 1977) Songfest: A Cycle of American Poems for Six Singers and Orchestra, 1977 Slava! A Political Overture for orchestra, 1977 Ḥalil, nocturne for solo flute, piccolo, alto flute, percussion, harp and strings, 1981 Choral[edit] Hashkiveinu for cantor (tenor), mixed chorus and organ, 1945 Missa Brevis for mixed chorus and countertenor solo, with percussion, 1988 Chichester Psalms for boy soprano (or countertenor), mixed chorus, and orchestra, 1965 (Reduced version for organ, harp and percussion) Chamber music[edit] Piano Trio, 1937 Sonata for Clarinet and Piano, 1942 Dance Suite, 1988 Vocal music[edit] Big Stuff, sung by Billie Holiday Opening Prayer for baritone and orchestra, 1986, opening of Carnegie Hall after restoration Piano music[edit] 7 Anniversaries, 1944 4 Anniversaries, 1948 5 Anniversaries, 1952 13 Anniversaries, 1988 Bibliography[edit] Bernstein, Leonard (1993) [1982]. Findings. New York: Anchor Books. ISBN 978-0-385-42437-0. — (1993) [1966]. The Infinite Variety of Music. New York: Anchor Books. ISBN 978-0-385-42438-7. — (2004) [1959]. The Joy of Music. Pompton Plains, New Jersey: Amadeus Press. ISBN 978-1-57467-104-9. — (2006) [1962]. Young People's Concerts. Milwaukee; Cambridge: Amadeus Press. ISBN 978-1-57467-102-5. — (1976). The Unanswered Question: Six Talks at Harvard. Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-92001-5. — (2013). The Leonard Bernstein Letters'. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-17909-5. Videography[edit] The Unanswered Question: Six Talks at Harvard. West Long Branch, New Jersey: Kultur Video. VHS ISBN 1-56127-570-0. DVD ISBN 0-7697-1570-2. (videotape of the Charles Eliot Norton Lectures given at Harvard in 1973.) Leonard Bernstein's Young People's Concerts with the New York Philharmonic. West Long Branch, New Jersey: Kultur Video. DVD ISBN 0-7697-1503-6. Bernstein on Beethoven: A Celebration in Vienna/Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 1. West Long Branch, Kultur Video. DVD Leonard Bernstein: Omnibus – The Historic TV Broadcasts, 2010, E1 Ent. Bernstein: Reflections (1978), A rare personal portrait of Leonard Bernstein by Peter Rosen. Euroarts DVD Bernstein/Beethoven (1982), Deutsche Grammophon, DVD The Metropolitan Opera Centennial Gala (1983), Deutsche Grammophon, DVD 00440-073-4538 Bernstein Conducts "West Side Story" (1985) (retitled The Making of West Side Story in re-releases) Deutsche Grammophon. DVD "The Rite of Spring" in Rehearsal "Leonard Bernstein: Reaching for the Note" (1998) Documentary on his life and music. Originally aired on PBS's American Masters series. DVD Awards[edit] Leonard Bernstein receiving the Edison Classical Music Award in 1968 Main article: List of Leonard Bernstein awards Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1951[81] Sonning Award (Denmark), 1965 Ditson Conductor's Award, 1958 George Peabody Medal – Johns Hopkins University, 1980 Ernst von Siemens Music Prize, 1987 Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medal (UK), 1987 Edward MacDowell Medal, 1987[82] Knight Grand Cross Order of Merit (Italy), 1989 Grammy Award for Best Album for Children Grammy Award for Best Orchestral Performance Grammy Award for Best Choral Performance Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording Grammy Award for Best Classical Vocal Performance Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Soloist(s) Performance Grammy Award for Best Classical Contemporary Composition Grammy Award for Best Classical Album Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award Tony Award for Best Musical Special Tony Award Japan Arts Association Lifetime Achievement Award Gramophone Hall of Fame entrant[83] Commandeur de la Légion d'honneur, 1986 Leonard Bernstein is also a member of both the American Theater Hall of Fame,[84] and the Television Hall of Fame.[85] In 2015 he was inducted into the Legacy Walk.[86] * Das Lied von der Erde From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to navigation Jump to search Das Lied von der Erde Symphony by Gustav Mahler Gustav Mahler in 1907 Key A minor – C major Text from Hans Bethge's Die chinesische Flöte Composed 1908: Toblach Published 1912, Universal Edition Recorded Bruno Walter, Vienna Philharmonic, 1936 Movements six Scoring contraltotenororchestra Premiere Date 20 November 1911 Location Munich Tonhalle, Munich Conductor Bruno Walter Das Lied von der Erde ("The Song of the Earth") is a composition for two voices and orchestra written by the Austrian composer Gustav Mahler between 1908 and 1909. Described as a symphony when published, it comprises six songs for two singers who alternate movements. Mahler specified the two singers should be a tenor and an alto, or else a tenor and a baritone if an alto is not available.[1] Mahler composed this work following the most painful period in his life, and the songs address themes such as those of living, parting and salvation. On the centenary of Mahler's birth, the composer and prominent Mahler conductor Leonard Bernstein described Das Lied von der Erde as Mahler's "greatest symphony".[2] Contents 1 Origins 2 Text of Das Lied von der Erde 2.1 1. "Das Trinklied vom Jammer der Erde" ("The Drinking Song of Earth's Sorrow") 2.2 2. "Der Einsame im Herbst" ("The Solitary One in Autumn") 2.3 3. "Von der Jugend" ("Of Youth") 2.4 4. "Von der Schönheit" ("Of Beauty") 2.5 5. "Der Trunkene im Frühling" ("The Drunkard in Spring") 2.6 6. "Der Abschied" ("The Farewell") 3 Text in Mahler's sources 4 Instrumentation 5 Premieres 6 Commentary 7 Curse of the Ninth 8 Structure 8.1 1. "Das Trinklied vom Jammer der Erde" 8.2 2. "Der Einsame im Herbst" 8.3 3. "Von der Jugend" 8.4 4. "Von der Schönheit" 8.5 5. "Der Trunkene im Frühling" 8.6 6. "Der Abschied" 9 Recordings 9.1 Original score as written by Mahler 9.1.1 Versions with female and male soloists 9.1.2 Versions with two male soloists 9.1.3 Versions with one male soloist 9.1.4 Original version for high and middle voice and piano 9.2 Schoenberg and Riehn arrangement 9.3 Cantonese translation 10 Related works 11 References 12 Sources 13 External links Origins[edit] Three disasters befell Mahler during the summer of 1907. Political maneuvering and antisemitism forced him to resign as Director of the Vienna Court Opera, his eldest daughter Maria died from scarlet fever and diphtheria, and Mahler himself was diagnosed with a congenital heart defect. "With one stroke," he wrote to his friend Bruno Walter, "I have lost everything I have gained in terms of who I thought I was, and have to learn my first steps again like a newborn".[3] The same year saw the publication of Hans Bethge's Die chinesische Flöte, a volume of ancient Chinese poetry rendered into German. Mahler was captivated by the vision of earthly beauty and transience expressed in these verses[4] and chose seven of the poems to set to music as Das Lied von der Erde. Mahler completed the work in 1909. Text of Das Lied von der Erde[edit] The Universal Edition score of 1912 for Das Lied von der Erde shows Mahler's adapted text as follows. 1. "Das Trinklied vom Jammer der Erde" ("The Drinking Song of Earth's Sorrow")[edit] Schon winkt der Wein im gold'nen Pokale, Doch trinkt noch nicht, erst sing' ich euch ein Lied! Das Lied vom Kummer Soll auflachend in die Seele euch klingen. Wenn der Kummer naht, Liegen wüst die Gärten der Seele, Welkt hin und stirbt die Freude, der Gesang. Dunkel ist das Leben, ist der Tod. Herr dieses Hauses! Dein Keller birgt die Fülle des goldenen Weins! Hier, diese Laute nenn' ich mein! Die Laute schlagen und die Gläser leeren, Das sind die Dinge, die zusammen passen. Ein voller Becher Weins zur rechten Zeit Ist mehr wert, als alle Reiche dieser Erde! Dunkel ist das Leben, ist der Tod! Das Firmament blaut ewig und die Erde Wird lange fest steh'n und aufblüh'n im Lenz. Du aber, Mensch, wie lang lebst denn du? Nicht hundert Jahre darfst du dich ergötzen An all dem morschen Tande dieser Erde! Seht dort hinab! Im Mondschein auf den Gräbern Hockt eine wild-gespenstische Gestalt – Ein Aff' ist's! Hört ihr, wie sein Heulen Hinausgellt in den süßen Duft des Lebens! Jetzt nehmt den Wein! Jetzt ist es Zeit, Genossen! Leert eure gold'nen Becher zu Grund! Dunkel ist das Leben, ist der Tod! The wine beckons in golden goblets but drink not yet; first I'll sing you a song. The song of sorrow shall ring laughingly in your soul. When the sorrow comes, blasted lie the gardens of the soul, wither and perish joy and singing. Dark is life, dark is death! Master of this house, your cellar is full of golden wine! Here, this lute I call mine. The lute to strike and the glasses to drain, these things go well together. A full goblet of wine at the right time is worth more than all the kingdoms of this earth. Dark is life, dark is death! The heavens are ever blue and the Earth shall stand sure, and blossom in the spring. But you O man, what long life have you? Not a hundred years may you delight in all the rotten baubles of this earth. See down there! In the moonlight, on the graves squats a wild ghostly shape; an ape it is! Hear you his howl go out in the sweet fragrance of life. Now! Drink the wine! Now it is time comrades. Drain your golden goblets to the last. Dark is life, dark is death! 2. "Der Einsame im Herbst" ("The Solitary One in Autumn")[edit] Herbstnebel wallen bläulich überm See; Vom Reif bezogen stehen alle Gräser; Man meint, ein Künstler habe Staub von Jade Über die feinen Blüten ausgestreut. Der süße Duft der Blumen ist verflogen; Ein kalter Wind beugt ihre Stengel nieder. Bald werden die verwelkten, gold'nen Blätter Der Lotosblüten auf dem Wasser zieh'n. Mein Herz ist müde. Meine kleine Lampe Erlosch mit Knistern, es gemahnt mich an den Schlaf. Ich komm' zu dir, traute Ruhestätte! Ja, gib mir Ruh', ich hab' Erquickung not! Ich weine viel in meinen Einsamkeiten. Der Herbst in meinem Herzen währt zu lange. Sonne der Liebe willst du nie mehr scheinen, Um meine bittern Tränen mild aufzutrocknen? Autumn fog creeps bluishly over the lake. Every blade of grass stands frosted. As though an artist had jade-dust over the fine flowers strewn. The sweet fragrance of flower has passed; A cold wind bows their stems low. Soon will the wilted, golden petals of lotus flowers upon the water float. My heart is tired. My little lamp expired with a crackle, minding me to sleep. I come to you, trusted resting place. Yes, give me rest, I have need of refreshment! I weep often in my loneliness. Autumn in my heart lingers too long. Sun of love, will you no longer shine Gently to dry up my bitter tears? 3. "Von der Jugend" ("Of Youth")[edit] Mitten in dem kleinen Teiche Steht ein Pavillon aus grünem Und aus weißem Porzellan. Wie der Rücken eines Tigers Wölbt die Brücke sich aus Jade Zu dem Pavillon hinüber. In dem Häuschen sitzen Freunde, Schön gekleidet, trinken, plaudern. Manche schreiben Verse nieder. Ihre seidnen Ärmel gleiten Rückwärts, ihre seidnen Mützen Hocken lustig tief im Nacken. Auf des kleinen Teiches stiller Wasserfläche zeigt sich alles Wunderlich im Spiegelbilde. Alles auf dem Kopfe stehend In dem Pavillon aus grünem Und aus weißem Porzellan; Wie ein Halbmond steht die Brücke, Umgekehrt der Bogen. Freunde, Schön gekleidet, trinken, plaudern. In the middle of the little pond stands a pavilion of green and white porcelain. Like the back of a tiger arches the jade bridge over to the pavilion. Friends sit in the little house well dressed, drinking, chatting. some writing verses. Their silk sleeves glide backwards, their silk caps rest gaily at the napes of their necks. On the small pond's still surface, everything shows whimsical in mirror image. Everything stands on its head in the pavilion of green and white porcelain. Like a half-moon is the bridge its arch upturned. Friends well dressed, drinking, chatting. 4. "Von der Schönheit" ("Of Beauty")[edit] Junge Mädchen pflücken Blumen, Pflücken Lotosblumen an dem Uferrande. Zwischen Büschen und Blättern sitzen sie, Sammeln Blüten in den Schoß und rufen Sich einander Neckereien zu. Gold'ne Sonne webt um die Gestalten, Spiegelt sie im blanken Wasser wider, Sonne spiegelt ihre schlanken Glieder, Ihre süßen Augen wider, Und der Zephir hebt mit Schmeichelkosen Das Gewebe Ihrer Ärmel auf, Führt den Zauber Ihrer Wohlgerüche durch die Luft. O sieh, was tummeln sich für schöne Knaben Dort an dem Uferrand auf mut'gen Rossen? Weithin glänzend wie die Sonnenstrahlen; Schon zwischen dem Geäst der grünen Weiden Trabt das jungfrische Volk einher! Das Roß des einen wiehert fröhlich auf Und scheut und saust dahin, Über Blumen, Gräser wanken hin die Hufe, Sie zerstampfen jäh im Sturm die hingesunk'nen Blüten, Hei! Wie flattern im Taumel seine Mähnen, Dampfen heiß die Nüstern! Gold'ne Sonne webt um die Gestalten, Spiegelt sie im blanken Wasser wider. Und die schönste von den Jungfrau'n sendet Lange Blicke ihm der Sehnsucht nach. Ihre stolze Haltung ist nur Verstellung. In dem Funkeln ihrer großen Augen, In dem Dunkel ihres heißen Blicks Schwingt klagend noch die Erregung ihres Herzens nach. Young girls picking flowers, Picking lotus flowers at the riverbank. Amid bushes and leaves they sit, gathering flowers in their laps and calling one another in raillery. Golden sun plays about their form reflecting them in the clear water. The sun reflects back their slender limbs, their sweet eyes, and the breeze teasing up the warp of their sleeves, directs the magic of perfume through the air. O see, what a tumult of handsome boys there on the shore on their spirited horses. Yonder shining like the sun's rays between the branches of green willows trot along the bold companions. The horse of one neighs happily on and shies and rushes there, hooves shaking down blooms, grass, trampling wildly the fallen flowers. Hei! How frenzied his mane flutters, and hotly steam his nostrils! Golden sun plays about their form reflecting them in the clear water. And the most beautiful of the maidens sends long looks adoring at him. Her proud pose is but a pretense; in the flash of her big eyes, in the darkness of her ardent gaze beats longingly her burning heart. 5. "Der Trunkene im Frühling" ("The Drunkard in Spring")[edit] Wenn nur ein Traum das Leben ist, Warum denn Müh' und Plag'!? Ich trinke, bis ich nicht mehr kann, Den ganzen, lieben Tag! Und wenn ich nicht mehr trinken kann, Weil Kehl' und Seele voll, So tauml' ich bis zu meiner Tür Und schlafe wundervoll! Was hör' ich beim Erwachen? Horch! Ein Vogel singt im Baum. Ich frag' ihn, ob schon Frühling sei, Mir ist als wie im Traum. Der Vogel zwitschert: Ja! Der Lenz ist da, sei kommen über Nacht! Aus tiefstem Schauen lauscht' ich auf, Der Vogel singt und lacht! Ich fülle mir den Becher neu Und leer' ihn bis zum Grund Und singe, bis der Mond erglänzt Am schwarzen Firmament! Und wenn ich nicht mehr singen kann, So schlaf' ich wieder ein. Was geht mich denn der Frühling an!? Laßt mich betrunken sein! If life is but a dream, why work and worry? I drink until I no more can, the whole, blessed day! And if I can drink no more as throat and soul are full, then I stagger to my door and sleep wonderfully! What do I hear on waking? Hark! A bird sings in the tree. I ask him if it's spring already; to me it's as if I'm in a dream. The bird chirps Yes! The spring is here, it came overnight! From deep wonderment I listen; the bird sings and laughs! I fill my cup anew and drink it to the bottom and sing until the moon shines in the black firmament! And if I can not sing, then I fall asleep again. What to me is spring? Let me be drunk! 6. "Der Abschied" ("The Farewell")[edit] Die Sonne scheidet hinter dem Gebirge. In alle Täler steigt der Abend nieder Mit seinen Schatten, die voll Kühlung sind. O sieh! Wie eine Silberbarke schwebt Der Mond am blauen Himmelssee herauf. Ich spüre eines feinen Windes Weh'n Hinter den dunklen Fichten! Der Bach singt voller Wohllaut durch das Dunkel. Die Blumen blassen im Dämmerschein. Die Erde atmet voll von Ruh' und Schlaf. Alle Sehnsucht will nun träumen, Die müden Menschen geh'n heimwärts, Um im Schlaf vergess'nes Glück Und Jugend neu zu lernen! Die Vögel hocken still in ihren Zweigen. Die Welt schläft ein! Es wehet kühl im Schatten meiner Fichten. Ich stehe hier und harre meines Freundes; Ich harre sein zum letzten Lebewohl. Ich sehne mich, o Freund, an deiner Seite Die Schönheit dieses Abends zu genießen. Wo bleibst du? Du läßt mich lang allein! Ich wandle auf und nieder mit meiner Laute Auf Wegen, die von weichem Grase schwellen. O Schönheit! O ewigen Liebens – Lebens – trunk'ne Welt! Er stieg vom Pferd und reichte ihm den Trunk Des Abschieds dar. Er fragte ihn, wohin er führe Und auch warum es müßte sein. Er sprach, seine Stimme war umflort. Du, mein Freund, Mir war auf dieser Welt das Glück nicht hold! Wohin ich geh'? Ich geh', ich wand're in die Berge. Ich suche Ruhe für mein einsam Herz. Ich wandle nach der Heimat, meiner Stätte. Ich werde niemals in die Ferne schweifen. Still ist mein Herz und harret seiner Stunde! Die liebe Erde allüberall Blüht auf im Lenz und grünt aufs neu! Allüberall und ewig blauen licht die Fernen! Ewig... ewig... The sun departs behind the mountains. In all the valleys the evening descends with its shadow, full cooling. O look! Like a silver boat sails the moon in the watery blue heaven. I sense the fine breeze stirring behind the dark pines. The brook sings out clear through the darkness. The flowers pale in the twilight. The earth breathes, in full rest and sleep. All longing now becomes a dream. Weary men traipse homeward to sleep; forgotten happiness and youth to rediscover. The birds roost silent in their branches. The world falls asleep. It blows coolly in the shadows of my pines. I stand here and wait for my friend; I wait to bid him a last farewell. I yearn, my friend, at your side to enjoy the beauty of this evening. Where are you? You leave me long alone! I walk up and down with my lute on paths swelling with soft grass. O beauty! O eternal loving-and-life-bedrunken world! He dismounted and handed him the drink of Farewells. He asked him where he would go and why must it be. He spoke, his voice was quiet. Ah my friend, Fortune was not kind to me in this world! Where do I go? I go, I wander in the mountains. I seek peace for my lonely heart. I wander homeward, to my abode! I'll never wander far. Still is my heart, awaiting its hour. The dear earth everywhere blossoms in spring and grows green anew! Everywhere and forever blue is the horizon! Forever ... Forever ... Text in Mahler's sources[edit] Mahler's source for the text was Hans Bethge's Die chinesische Flöte. Bethge used prior translations and adaptations of the original Chinese poetry.[5] Texts now identified as being likely sources used by Bethge include Hans Heilman's Chinesische Lyrik (1905),[6] Marquis d'Hervey de Saint Denys' Poésies de l'époque des Thang,[7] and Judith Gautier's Livre de Jade.[8][9][10] Four of the songs—"Das Trinklied vom Jammer der Erde", "Von der Jugend", "Von der Schönheit" and "Der Trunkene im Frühling"—were derived from poems written by Li Bai, the wandering poet of the Tang dynasty. "Der Einsame im Herbst" is based on a poem "After Long Autumn Night" by Qian Qi, another poet of the Tang Dynasty.[11] "Der Abschied" combines poems by Tang Dynasty poets Meng Haoran and Wang Wei, with several additional lines by Mahler himself. These attributions have been a matter of some uncertainty, and around the turn of the 21st century, Chinese scholars extensively debated the sources of the songs following a performance of the work in China in 1998.[12] Instrumentation[edit] Mahler had already included movements for voice and orchestra in his Second, Third, Fourth and Eighth Symphonies. However, Das Lied von der Erde is the first complete integration of song cycle form with that of the symphony. The form was afterwards imitated by other composers, notably by Shostakovich and Zemlinsky. This new form has been termed a "song-symphony",[13] a hybrid of the two forms that had occupied most of Mahler's creative life. Das Lied von der Erde is scored for a large orchestra, consisting of the following: Woodwinds piccolo 3 flutes (3rd doubling 2nd piccolo) 3 oboes (3rd doubling cor anglais) 3 B♭ clarinets E♭ clarinet bass clarinet 3 bassoons (3rd doubling contrabassoon) Brass 4 horns 3 trumpets 3 trombones tuba Percussion 4 timpani (used only in "Von der Schöneit") bass drum snare drum cymbals triangle tambourine (used only in "Von der Schönheit") tam-tam (used only in "Der Abschied") glockenspiel Keyboards celesta (used only in "Der Abschied") Voices alto solo tenor solo Strings mandolin 2 harps 1st violins 2nd violins violas cellos double basses (with low C string) Mahler deploys these resources with great restraint; only in the first, fourth and sixth songs does the full orchestra play together. The celesta is only heard at the end of the finale, and only the first movement requires all three trumpets, with two playing in the fourth movement and none playing in the sixth. In many places the texture resembles chamber music, with only a few instruments being used at one time. Mahler's habit was to subject the orchestration of every new orchestral work to detailed revision over several years. Though the musical material itself was hardly ever changed, the complex instrumental 'clothing' would be altered and refined in the light of experience gained in performance. In the case of Das Lied von der Erde, however, this process could not occur as the work's publication and first performance occurred posthumously. The score calls for tenor and alto soloists.[1] However, Mahler includes the note that "if necessary, the alto part may be sung by a baritone". For the first few decades after the work's premiere, this option was little used. On one occasion Bruno Walter tried it out, and engaged Friedrich Weidemann, the baritone who had premiered Kindertotenlieder under Mahler's own baton in 1905. However, Walter felt that tenor and baritone did not work as well as tenor and alto, and he never repeated the experiment.[14] Following the pioneering recordings of the work by baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau under conductors Paul Kletzki and Leonard Bernstein, the use of baritones in this work has increased. Arnold Schoenberg began to arrange Das Lied von der Erde for chamber orchestra, reducing the orchestral forces to string and wind quintets, and calling for piano, celesta and harmonium to supplement the harmonic texture. Three percussionists are also employed. Schoenberg never finished this project, but the arrangement was completed by Rainer Riehn in 1980. In 2004, the Octavian Society commissioned Glen Cortese to create two reductions of the work, one for a chamber ensemble of twenty instruments and one for a small orchestra with woodwinds and brass in pairs. Both these reductions are published in critical editions by Universal in Vienna. Mahler also arranged the work for piano accompaniment, and this has been recorded by Cyprien Katsaris with Thomas Moser and Brigitte Fassbaender. Katsaris has also performed this version in concert.[15] Premieres[edit] The first public performance was given, posthumously, on 20 November 1911 in the Tonhalle in Munich, sung by Sara Cahier and William Miller (both Americans) with Bruno Walter conducting. Mahler had died six months earlier, on 18 May. One of the earliest performances in London (possibly the first) occurred in January 1913 at the Queen's Hall under conductor Henry Wood, where it was sung by Gervase Elwes and Doris Woodall. Wood reportedly thought that the work was 'excessively modern but very beautiful'.[16] Commentary[edit] According to the musicologist Theodor W. Adorno, Mahler found in Chinese poetry what he had formerly sought after in the genre of German folk song: a mask or costume for the sense of rootlessness or "otherness" attending his identity as a Jew.[17] This theme, and its influence upon Mahler's tonality, has been further explored by John Sheinbaum.[18] It has also been asserted that Mahler found in these poems an echo of his own increasing awareness of mortality.[19] Curse of the Ninth[edit] Mahler was aware[20] of the so-called "curse of the ninth", a superstition arising from the fact that no major composer since Beethoven had successfully completed more than nine symphonies: he had already written eight symphonies before composing Das Lied von der Erde. Fearing his subsequent demise,[citation needed] he decided to subtitle the work A Symphony for Tenor, Alto and Large Orchestra (Eine Symphonie für eine Tenor- und eine Alt- (oder Bariton-) Stimme und Orchester), rather than numbering it as a symphony. His next symphony, written for purely instrumental forces, was numbered his Ninth. That was indeed the last symphony he fully completed, because only two movements of the Tenth had been fully orchestrated at the time of his death. Structure[edit] 1. "Das Trinklied vom Jammer der Erde"[edit] The first movement, "The Drinking Song of Earth's Misery" (in A minor), continually returns to the refrain, Dunkel ist das Leben, ist der Tod (literally, "Dark is life, is death"), which is pitched a semitone higher on each successive appearance. 0:00 Like many drinking poems by Li Bai, the original poem "Bei Ge Xing" (a pathetic song) (Chinese: 悲歌行) mixes drunken exaltation with a deep sadness. The singer's part is notoriously demanding, since the tenor has to struggle at the top of his range against the power of the full orchestra. This gives the voice its shrill, piercing quality, and is consistent with Mahler's practice of pushing instruments, including vocal cords, to their limits. According to musicologist Theodor W. Adorno, the tenor should here create the impression of a "denatured voice in the Chinese (falsetto) style".[21] 0:00 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 climax also marks the first of the three whole-tone passages that occur in the symphony. 2. "Der Einsame im Herbst"[edit] 0:00 "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,[11] 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. 3. "Von der Jugend"[edit] 0:00 The third movement, "Of Youth" (for tenor, in B-flat 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. 4. "Von der Schönheit"[edit] 0:00 The music of this 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. 5. "Der Trunkene im Frühling"[edit] 0:00 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. 6. "Der Abschied"[edit] 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. This final song 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. 0:00 Lines 1–3, 17–19, and 26–28 are all sung to the same music, with a pedal point in the low strings and soft strokes of the tam-tam; in the first two of these sections, a countermelody in the flute imitates the song of a bird, but the third of these sections is just the bare pedal point and tam-tam.[22] The singer repeats the final word of the song, ewig ("forever"), like a mantra, accompanied by sustained chords in the orchestra, which features mandolin, harps, and celesta. Ewig is repeated as the music fades into silence, the final chord "printed on the atmosphere" as Benjamin Britten asserted.[23] 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".[22] Conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein asserts that this ties in with the Eastern idea of Nirvana, in that the "soul" of the singer, as she or he dies, becomes one with the everlasting earth.[24] 0:00 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."[25] 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.[26] Recordings[edit] Original score as written by Mahler[edit] Versions with female and male soloists[edit] Marc Albrecht, with Alice Coote and Burkhard Fritz, Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra (Pentatone 3530480) Daniel Barenboim, with Waltraud Meier and Siegfried Jerusalem, Chicago Symphony Orchestra (Erato CD D-2292-45624-2) Eduard van Beinum, with Nan Merriman and Ernst Haefliger, Concertgebouw Orchestra, Amsterdam (Fontana LP 894 120 ZKY) Gary Bertini, with Marjana Lipovšek and Ben Heppner, Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra (EMI Classics 0946 3 40238 2 5, 11-CD box set) Pierre Boulez, with Violeta Urmana and Michael Schade, Vienna Philharmonic (DGG, CD E4695262) Colin Davis, with Jessye Norman and Jon Vickers, London Symphony Orchestra (Philips 441 474-2) Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, with Yvi Jänicke and Christian Elsner, Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra (Orfeo C494001B; live recording from 1996) Michael Gielen, with Cornelia Kalisch and Siegfried Jerusalem, SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg (SWR Music 93.269) Carlo Maria Giulini, with Brigitte Fassbaender and Francisco Araiza, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra (DGG CD 413 459-2) Carlo Maria Giulini, with Brigitte Fassbaender and Francisco Araiza, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra (Testament Records SBT1465; live recording from February 1984) Hans Graf, with Jane Henschel and Gregory Kunde, Houston Symphony Orchestra (Naxos 8.527498) Bernard Haitink, with Janet Baker and James King, Concertgebouw Orchestra, Amsterdam, 1975 (Philips LP 6500 831) Michael Halász, with Ruxandra Donose and Thomas Harper, National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland (Naxos 8.550933) Jascha Horenstein, with Alfreda Hodgson and John Mitchinson, BBC Northern Symphony Orchestra (BBC Legends BBC 4042) Eliahu Inbal, with Jard van Nes and Peter Schreier, Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra (Denon 72605) (1988) Eliahu Inbal, with Iris Vermillion and Robert Gambill, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra (Exton OVCL-00473) (live recording 2012) Eugen Jochum, with Nan Merriman and Ernst Haefliger, Concertgebouw Orchestra, Amsterdam (DGG 289 46362822) Herbert von Karajan, with Christa Ludwig and René Kollo, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra (DGG CD 419 058-2) Herbert Kegel, with Věra Soukupová and Reiner Goldberg, Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra (Weitblick SSS0052-2) Rudolf Kempe, with Janet Baker and Ludovic Speiss, BBC Symphony Orchestra (BBC Legends BBCL41292) Carlos Kleiber, with Christa Ludwig and Waldemar Kmentt, Vienna Symphony (live recording from 1967) Otto Klemperer, with Christa Ludwig and Fritz Wunderlich, New Philharmonia and Philharmonia Orchestras (HMV LP Angel Series SAN 179) Otto Klemperer, with Elsa Cavelti and Anton Dermota, Vienna Symphony (Vox Legends CDX2-5521 [2-CD reissue]) Paul Kletzki, with Oralia Dominguez and Set Svanholm, Vienna Symphony (Orfeo C748071B; live recording from 12 November 1954) Josef Krips, with Anna Reynolds and Jess Thomas, Vienna Symphony (Orfeo C278921B; live recording) Rafael Kubelík, with Janet Baker and Waldemar Kmentt, Symphonie-Orchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks (Audite B0000669K1) Rafael Kubelík, with Hilde Rössel-Majdan and Waldemar Kmentt, Vienna Philharmonic (Orfeo C820102B; live recording from 30 August 1959) Raymond Leppard, with Janet Baker and John Mitchinson, BBC Northern Symphony (BBC Legends BBCL 4243-2) James Levine, with Jessye Norman and Siegfried Jerusalem, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra (DG 289 439-948-2) Lorin Maazel, with Waltraud Meier and Ben Heppner, Symphonie-Orchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks (RCA Red Seal 74321 67957 2) Yannick Nézet-Séguin, with Sarah Connolly and Toby Spence, London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO-0073) Eugene Ormandy, with Lili Chookasian and Richard Lewis, Philadelphia Orchestra (Sony CD SBK 53518) Eiji Oue, with Michelle DeYoung and Jon Villars, Minnesota Orchestra (Reference Recordings RR-88CD) Fritz Reiner, with Maureen Forrester and Richard Lewis, Chicago Symphony Orchestra (RCA 60178-2-RG) Sir Simon Rattle, with Magdalena Kožená and Stuart Skelton, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra (BR Klassik 900172) Hans Rosbaud, with Grace Hoffman and Helmut Melchert, SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden (Vox Turnabout LP, TV 34220S) Sir Georg Solti, with Marjana Lipovšek and Thomas Moser, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (Decca 440 314-2) Sir Georg Solti, with Yvonne Minton and René Kollo, Chicago Symphony Orchestra (Decca CD 414 066-2) Kurt Sanderling, with Birgit Finnilä and Peter Schreier, Berlin Symphony Orchestra (Berlin Classics 0094022BC) Carl Schuricht, with Kerstin Thorborg and Carl Martin Öhmann, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam (October 1939 broadcast concert, live). (Bel Age CD, from acetates.) Martin Sieghart, with Christianne Stotijn and Donald Litaker, Het Gelders Orkest (Arnhem Philharmonic Orchestra) (Exton HGO0702) Giuseppe Sinopoli, with Iris Vermillion and Keith Lewis, Staatskapelle Dresden (DG 289 453 437-2) Walter Susskind, with Lili Chookasian and Richard Cassilly, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra (Vox VU 9040) Klaus Tennstedt, with Agnes Baltsa and Klaus König, London Philharmonic Orchestra (EMI Classics 5 74849 2, 2-CD set) Bruno Walter, with Kathleen Ferrier and Julius Patzak, Wiener Philharmoniker (Decca LP LXT 2721–2722) 1952. Remastered in 2003 by Mark Obert-Thorn (Naxos Historical 8.110871). Bruno Walter, with Kerstin Thorborg and Charles Kullman, Vienna Musikvereinsaal 1936 (live). (Columbia Records, 78rpm, 7x12" Mahler Society Issue) Bruno Walter, with Mildred Miller and Ernst Haefliger, New York Philharmonic Orchestra (Sony CD SMK 64455) Michael Zilm, with Jadwiga Rappé and Piotr Kusiewicz, Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra Katowice (DUX 0810) David Zinman, with Susan Graham and Christian Elsner, Tonhalle Orchester Zürich (RCA Red Seal 5438152) Versions with two male soloists[edit] Leonard Bernstein, with James King and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Wiener Philharmoniker (Decca CD 417 783-2) Bernard Haitink, with Christian Elsner and Christian Gerhaher, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra Paul Kletzki, with Murray Dickie and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Philharmonia Orchestra (HMV LP SXLP 30165) Josef Krips, with Fritz Wunderlich and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Vienna Symphony (DGG 289 477 8988 8; live recording from 1964) Kent Nagano, with Klaus Florian Vogt and Christian Gerhaher, Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal (Sony Classical 88697508212) Jonathan Nott, with Roberto Saccà and Stephen Gadd, Bamberger Symphoniker (Tudor 7202) Simon Rattle, with Peter Seiffert and Thomas Hampson, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (EMI Classics 5 56200) Esa-Pekka Salonen, with Plácido Domingo and Bo Skovhus, Los Angeles Philharmonic (Sony Classical 60646) Michael Tilson Thomas, with Stuart Skelton and Thomas Hampson, San Francisco Symphony (SFS Media 1206) Versions with one male soloist[edit] Jonathan Nott, with Jonas Kaufmann, Wiener Philharmoniker (Sony Classical B01MZZXR1G) Original version for high and middle voice and piano[edit] Brigitte Fassbaender (mezzo-soprano), Thomas Moser (tenor), Cyprien Katsaris (piano) (Warner Apex 2564681627 – reissue number) Hermine Haselböck (mezzo-soprano), Bernhard Berchtold (tenor), Markus Vorzellner (piano). Recorded 2008 at the occasion of the 100th anniversary in the Kulturzentrum Toblach, in cooperation with the Gustav-Mahler-Musikweks Toblach 2008 (C-AVI MUSIC 4260085531257) Schoenberg and Riehn arrangement[edit] Osmo Vänskä, with Monica Groop and Jorma Silvasti, Sinfonia Lahti Chamber Ensemble (BIS CD-681). Robert HP Platz, with Ingrid Schmithüsen and Aldo Baldin, Ensemble Köln, Canterino 1031 Mark Wigglesworth, with Jean Rigby and Robert Tear, Premiere Ensemble (RCA CD Dig-09026-68043-2) Kenneth Slowik, with John Elwes, Russell Braun, Smithsonian Chamber Players & Santa Fe Pro Musica (Dorian Recordings) Philippe Herreweghe, with Birgit Remmert, Hans Peter Blochwitz, Ensemble Musique Oblique (Harmonia Mundi HMA 1951477). George Manahan, with Jennifer Johnson Cano and Paul Groves, Orchestra of St. Luke's (St. Luke's Collection) Ken Selden, with Robert Breault and Richard Zeller, Martingale Ensemble (MSR Classics MS1406) Nicol Matt, with Anna Haase and Daniel Sans, European Chamber Soloists (Brilliant Classics 82192) Fabio Luisi, with Doris Soffel and Wolfgang Muller-Lorenz, MDR Symphony Orchestra (Querstand VKJK0428) Edward Carroll, with Miriam Murphy and Henry Moss, Royal Academy of Music Chamber Ensemble (Royal Academy of Music RAM 010 66108) Scott Tilley, with Timothy W Sparks and Ellen Williams, Duraleigh Chamber Players (Centaur CRC3044) Douglas Boyd, with Jane Irwin and Peter Wedd, Manchester Camerata (Avie AV2195) Kenneth Woods, with Emma Curtis and Brennen Guillory, Orchestra of the Swan (Somm Recordings SOMMCD 0109) Linos Ensemble (no conductor identified), with Ivonne Fuchs and Markus Schäfer (Capriccio C5136) Cantonese translation[edit] In 2004, Daniel Ng and Glen Cortese prepared a Cantonese version. The world premiere of this version was given on 14 August 2004 by the Chamber Orchestra Anglia at the British Library, conducted by Sharon Andrea Choa, with soloists Robynne Redmon and Warren Mok.[27] It was performed again by the Singapore Symphony Orchestra on 22 July 2005, with mezzo Ning Liang and tenor Warren Mok, under the direction of Lan Shui. Related works[edit] American poet Ronald Johnson wrote a series of concrete poems called Songs of the Earth (1970) based on a "progression of hearings" of Mahler's work.[28] Das Lied von der Erde About the Work Composer: Gustav Mahler © Richard Freed Mahler composed Das Lied von der Erde (?The Song of the Earth?) in 1908 and 1909, taking his texts from Hans Bethge's German adaptations of classic Chinese poems, and designated the work ?a symphony for tenor and alto (or baritone) and orchestra; the first performance was given in Munich on November 20, 1911, under the direction of Bruno Walter, with two American singers?Mme Charles Cahier and William Miller?as soloists, and the overwhelming majority of performances since then have also been sung by an alto and a tenor; in the present concerts the National Symphony Orchestra becomes one of the very few performing organizations anywhere to perform Das Lied von der Erde with tenor and baritone soloists. Hans Kindler conducted the NSO's first performances of this work, with the mezzo-soprano Nell Tangeman and the tenor Harold Haugh as his soloists, on December 14 and 15, 1948; Mstislav Rostropovich conducted the most recent ones, on May 14, 15, 16 and 19, 1992, with the mezzo Hanneli Rupert and the tenor George Gray. In addition to the two singers, the score calls for piccolo, 3 flutes, 3 oboes, English horn, 3 B-flat clarinets, E-flat clarinet, bass clarinet, 3 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, bass drum, triangle, cymbals, tambourine, glockenspiel, tam-tam, celesta, mandolin, 2 harps, and strings. Duration, 65 minutes. ________________________________________________ As indicated above, Mahler regarded this work as a symphony; the very circumstance of its not bearing a number is part of the background that certifies it as one of the most profoundly personal of all his works. It might almost have been given the same title as the Brit;ten symphony that precedes it in the present concerts: if not exactly a ?requiem? (in that it contains no reference to liturgy or ritual), Das Lied von der Erde was a conscious gesture of leave-taking on Mahler's part, the first part of the final triptych of symphonies in which he said his farewell to life?and which he did not live to hear performed. The premiere, conducted by his young associate and devoted disciple Bruno Walter, took place six months after his death. Walter presided over the premiere of Mahler's Ninth Symphony (composed in 1909-10) in Vienna the following June. Mahler completed his Tenth Symphony in sketch but orchestrated only two of its five movements; it was to wait much longer for a hearing, and remains a controversial item today in the several ?performing versions? prepared by Deryck Cooke and various others. While Mahler regarded these three works as constituting a valedictory cycle, he tried to pretend otherwise?or to assure his surviving long enough to complete them all?by omitting Das Lied von der Erde from the list of symphonies to which he assigned numbers. His wife wrote, ?Because Beethoven died after his Ninth Symphony and Bruckner before finishing his Ninth . . . it was a superstition of Mahler's that no great writer of symphonies got beyond his ninth.? For this reason, once he completed his Eighth Symphony, giving a number to its successor was something ?he wished to dodge,? as Alma Mahler put it, in dread of a Ninth Symphony. . . . When later he was writing his next symphony, which he called the Ninth, he said to me, ?Actually, of course, it's the Tenth, because Das Lied von der Erde was really the Ninth.? Finally, when he was composing the Tenth he said, ?Now the danger is past.? By that time, however, Mahler knew he was living on borrowed time, as he had known when he was composing on Das Lied von der Erde in the summer of 1908. Anxiety over his diseased heart had turned his life into a gloomy and desperate race to complete the works he had outlined. In July 1908, as he worked on Das Lied , he wrote to Bruno Walter, If I am to find my way back to myself, I have got to accept the horrors of loneliness, since you do not know what has gone on and is going on within me. It is, assuredly, no hypochondriac fear of death, as you suppose. I have long known that I have got to die. . . . Without trying to explain or describe something for which there probably are no words, I simply say that with a single fell stroke I have lost any calm and peace of mind I ever achieved. I stand vis-à-vie de rien , and now, at the end of my life, have to begin to learn to walk and stand. In the previous year the ?three blows of fate? Mahler had prophesied in his Sixth Symphony (completed in 1904) struck almost simultaneously. His glorious decade as director of the Vienna Opera came to an acrimonious end, his five-year-old daughter died of scarlet fever, and Mahler himself received a virtual death sentence from his physician, who discovered his heart condition more or less by accident. Bruno Walter was to observe many years later that the great moral achievement of Mahler's life seems . . . to lie in the fact that neither the torments of the creature nor the pangs of the human spirit caused him comfortably to shrung his shoulders with the ?Ignorabimus? of the philosopher, and turna away . . . to look at what the world has to give of beauty and happiness. . . . He was faithful to the task laid upon him: to extract a divine significance from his suffering. Citing the letter quoted above, Walter wrote that composing Das Lied von der Erde was Mahler's way of surmounting his crisis, and that the pantheistic spirit of the great Farewell with which the work ends was very much in accord with the composer's own nature, as expressed in the closing lines of another letter, written much earlier, at the age of 19: ?Oh, Eternal Mother, receive a lonely restless heart!? The Chinese poems Mahler set in this work were among those he had read in Hans Bethge's collection Die chinesische Flöte (?The Chinese Flute?). All three of the tenor's songs (movements 1, 3 and 5) and the alto's ?Von der Schönheit? (fourth movement) have texts adapted from the works of the most renowned of Chinese poets, Li Tai Po (701-762). The second movement, ?Der Einsame im Herbst,? is based on a poem by Chang Tsi, and the words of the two episodes of the concluding movement, ?Der Abschied,? are derived from verses by Mong Kao-Jen and Wang Wei, respectively. These poems did not ?inspire? Mahler's music in the usual sense: that is, his setting them to music was not merely a ?response? to the verses he read, but rather, his recognition of material in them whose moods ideally suited his already well defined needs. At the very end of the work he added lines of his own. Mahler at first considered calling this work Das Lied vom Jammer der Erde (?The Song of the Earth's Sorrow?), but settled on the simpler and more effective title and assigned the more elaborate one (with a change of the word Lied to the more specific Trinklied ) to the first of the six movements. The first two movements and the vast concluding one (which alone accounts for about half the work's length) are among the most urgently personal utterances in all of Mahler's works. The other three are somewhat less intense, providing, by way of contrast to the weight of lamentation and resignation, only fleetingly melancholy observations on the transitory nature of life's beauties and pleasures. Almost every phrase is illumined with some peculiar poignancy to make it memorable?the impact of the two words ?mild aufzutrocknen,? at the end of the second song, is quite shattering?but the effect of the miraculous whole is immeasurably greater than the sum of even such exquisite parts, and the transfiguring catharsis of the ?Abschied? has perhaps no real parallel in any other music, with or without words. Throughout the work Mahler's use of the huge orchestra is as restrained as the language of the poems. In the main, instruments are used in various combinations to achieve a chamber-music sort of intimacy, and there is no marshaling of the entire aggregation at any point. Between the two vocal episodes of the ?Abschied? is the work's only extended passage for the orchestra alone: it is no mere interlude, but a sort of threnody that constitutes both a grim confrontation with the inevitable and a bridge from the realm of desolation and woe to the heights of a pantheistic ecstasy made more real than reality in the other-worldly treatment of the last lines of the text, which are Mahler's own?from the radiance that illumines the aural landscape with the words ?Die liebe Erde allüberall? to the last dimming flicker of ?Ewig . . . ewig . . . ? framed by the celesta and mandolin.** ebay4782
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