No. 2044 Subscription (Program C)

Born in Bohemia, then in the Austrian Empire, Gustav Mahler (1860–1911) was a leading opera conductor during his lifetime, assuming particularly the directorship of the Vienna Court Opera (today the Vienna State Opera). Deeply read in literature as well, he left us some important song cycles with orchestral accompaniment and symphonies requiring voices as represented by No. 8 Symphonie der Tausend (Symphony of a Thousand) (1907) and Das Lied von der Erde (The Song of the Earth) (1909).
In the case of his symphonies No. 2 (1894), No. 3 (1896) and No. 4 (1900), they are collectively known as the Wunderhorn (Magic Horn) Symphonies, for they are inextricably bound up with Mahler’s own song series Des Knaben Wunderhorn (The Boy’s Magic Horn) for voice and orchestra. The songs were composed based on German folk poems from a collection of the same title edited by Achim von Arnim and Clemens Brentano. Our baritone Thomas Hampson, a leading figure in Mahler’s vocal music, will perform five songs from the series for us.
Rheinlegendchen (Little Rhine Legend) is a monologue of a woman about tossing her ring into the Rhine to get her lover’s attention.
Wo die schönen Trompeten blasen (Where the Fair Trumpets Sound), resounding with trumpet retreat command, is a dialogue between a woman and the spectre of her lover, a soldier killed in battle.
Das irdische Leben (Earthly Life) is a child’s repetitive imploration for food, who ends up dying of starvation. The melody is quoted in the Purgatory movement of Mahler’s Symphony No. 10.
Das himmlische Leben (Heavenly Life) is about the joy of heaven (“We wallow in heavenly pleasures” ... “Delicious apples, delicious pears and delicious grapes!”). Mahler will remake this song as the finale for soprano and orchestra in his Symphony No. 4. The chorale-like melody of these twin pieces is also heard in the What the Angels Tell Me movement (IV) of his Symphony No. 3.
Urlicht (Primeval Light) is a profound prayer (“Man lies in greatest pain, I would rather be in heaven” ... “Dear God will give me a light, To light my way to the eternal blessed life”). This song forms the fourth movement for alto and orchestra of Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony No. 2.

[Kumiko Nishi]

The timeless pride of Finland, Jean Sibelius (1865–1957)—five-year junior to Mahler—left his double mark on music history, as an important symphonist following the pan-European tradition and as the establisher of the Finnish national identity in music. An early successful example of the latter is Four Legends from the Kalevala (also known as Lemminkäinen Suite after the eponymous hero), a set of four symphonic poems premiered in 1896 (the composer will make revisions to them later). The Kalevala is Finland’s mythological epic which led a national awakening through the second half of the nineteenth century and thus paved the way for the country’s independence from Russian rule in 1917.
I Lemminkäinen and the Maidens of Saari establishes the home key of the suite (E-flat major). Opened by a dreamy horn call, the music eventually peaks at a jauntily merry moment of maidens dancing. The handsome lady-killer Lemminkäinen is on an island to seduce and win the heart of all the maidens but Kyllikki, the belle of the island. He abducts her and persuades her to be his wife.
II The Swan of Tuonela is the most popular of the cycle. Tuonela is, according to the first edition of the score, “Hades surrounded by a large river of black water” on which “the swan of Tuonela glides majestically and sings.” Sibelius entrusted the role of this singing swan to the English horn: indeed, its pear-shaped bell, its long main body and its bocal (curved thin tube that the reed is attached to) remind us of a swan, whilst its plaintive tone fits the piece’s mysterious, mournful setting well. Depicting the scene with a vivid imagination, the composer, an eminent violinist as well, displays great ability as an ingenious orchestrator: especially, his meticulous treatment of the strings—divided into thirteen parts at the beginning—produces a remarkable effect throughout the piece.
III Lemminkäinen in Tuonela full of swift eerie tremolos (tremulous effect) on strings, is exceptionally dramatic. Here our hero heads down to the Hades of Finnish mythology in order to shoot the sacred swan with a poisoned arrow. This is a trial set by the wicked queen of the Pohjola for him to take her daughter for his new wife. However, on the shore his enemy, a blind herdsman, kills Lemminkäinen whose body is pushed into the river and dismembered. Informed of his death, his mother arrives at Tuonela to gather his body parts and then a magical power brings him to life.
Headed “con fuoco”(fierily), IV The Return of Lemminkäinen starts in C minor. It is a galloping piece in perpetual motion which depicts the hero on his way back home following his mother’s persuasion. Towards the end, the piece returns to the cycle’s “home” key, E-flat major, to conclude in a triumphant manner.

[Kumiko Nishi]