Music Appreciation: Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde (Song of the Earth)
Friday Apr 22, 2022 @ 1:30 PM Central Time
In the summer of 1907, composer Gustav Mahler was in despair over the death of his five-year-old daughter and the prognosis of his own congenital heart defect, when he was given a German translation of a volume of ancient Chinese poems about love and loss, and the restorative beauty of nature. He chose seven of the poems and set them to music as Das Lied von der Erde, a song cycle which he completed in 1909. We begin the program with an illustrated on the poems, followed by a concert featuring tenor Paul Groves and baritone Thomas Hampson, with Neeme Jarvi conducting the Orchestra de la Suisse Romande in Geneva. (2012, Sung in German with English subtitles, 120 minutes.)