German Giants
Tuesday - August 16, 2005

Program 7

Symphony No. 4 in G major for Soprano and Orchestra
Gustav Mahler (1860-1911)

Composed in 1899-1900.
Premiered on November 11, 1901 in Munich, conducted by the composer.

Mahler’s Fourth Symphony, the most modest in length and orchestral requirements of his ten, had its roots as far back as 1892, when the composer was 32. Those were the years, extending through the composition of the Fourth Symphony, during which Mahler was imbibing the folk traditions of Germany as they were set down in an early-19th-century anthology of poems titled Des Knaben Wunderhorn (“The Youth’s Magic Horn”). Edward Downes noted a deep-seated personal need in Mahler’s interest in these simple peasant verses: “Like most German Romantic artists, Mahler felt a love for folk art amounting almost to worship. In part this may have been the nostalgia of the complex intellectual city-dweller for an Eden of lost innocence, of freshness, of naïveté.” This vein of innocence, of child-like simplicity is at the heart of the lovely Fourth Symphony.

In 1892, Mahler set to music one of the Wunderhorn poems, Der Himmel hängt voll Geigen (“Heaven is chock full of violins”). He completed the song, which he named after its first line, Wir geniessen die himmlischen Freuden (“We revel in heavenly pleasures”), in February 1892, and made an orchestral arrangement of it the following month. When he set to work on his Third Symphony in 1895, he intended to include this song as the last of its movements. The vast musical panorama of the Third Symphony, perhaps the best example of Mahler’s philosophy that sought to embody “the world in a symphony,” was conceived to address individual movements to such matters as “What the flowers tell me,” “What the forest creatures tell me,” and so forth for “the night,” “the angels” and “love.” The finale was to have included Wir geniessen die himmlischen Freuden to elucidate “What the Child tells me.” Mahler, however, decided to drop this song from the Third Symphony, probably because it would have been an anti-climax after the stentorian ending of the preceding movement. Instead, he determined to explore the world of this “child of heaven” more extensively, in a separate work. Thus was the Fourth Symphony born.

It is important to understanding the Fourth Symphony to realize that its entire mood and structure are built to lead to the finale — the first three movements serve to prepare for and illuminate the closing vision of Wir geniessen die himmlischen Freuden. The composer is reported to have said, “In the first three movements there reigns the serenity of a higher realm, a realm strange to us, oddly frightening, even terrifying. In the finale, the child, which in its previous existence belonged to this higher realm, tells us what it all means….” The child-like simplicity and open-faced sincerity of the last movement supply not only the general emotional framework of the Symphony, but also influence some of its musical materials. The development section of the first movement, for example, contains a chirruping theme for four unison flutes derived from the concluding song. It is not the normal course of creation for a work to proceed forward from its ending. In this instance, however, this is what happened, and the first three movements need to be viewed as the various steps through which the listener is prepared to understand the full implications of the finale. (Incidentally, Wagner followed a similar “working-backwards” procedure in the conception of his “Ring” operas.)

The Symphony opens in G major with the distinctive sound of sleigh bells that recurs at important structural points throughout the movement. A number of melodic ideas are tossed out to comprise the main theme group before the music moves, properly enough, to D major for the second theme, a sweet, Viennese melody high in the cellos. The sleigh bells mark the beginning of a lengthy development section that thoroughly explores much of the material heard thus far, with a particular emphasis on the clear pipings of the augmented woodwind choir. After one of the few large climaxes of the Symphony, the development quiets before it comes to an abrupt stop. The music takes a quick breath, and the recapitulation begins in the sunny mood of the opening. The exposition themes are again assayed to bring the movement to an invigorating close.

Mahler’s original designation for the second-movement scherzo was Freund Hein spielt auf (“Friend Hein plays”). “Hein” was the character of German legend who used his fiddle to lure reluctant travelers to the Great Beyond. This eerie movement, perhaps inspired by the not dissimilar visions of Liszt, Saint-Saëns and Berlioz, alternates a diabolical scherzo with brighter trios. Much of the mood comes from the solo violinist, who is instructed to tune a second instrument a full step higher than normal to produce a more strident tone quality. Of this movement, Mahler wrote, “The scherzo is so uncanny, almost sinister, that your hair may stand on end. Yet in the following Adagio, where all complications are dissolved, you will feel that it was not really all that sinister….” Rather like a bad dream followed by a reassuring sunrise.

The serene third movement is in the form of a variation on two themes, though it follows the formal outlines of each theme only tenuously. The first set of variations, dominated by the string choir founded upon a resonant pizzicato bass line, alternates with the second set of variations, given largely to the winds. The oboe introduces the second theme.

The vision of the closing movement is couched in the simplest of musical forms — the strophic song. Each verse of the text, filled with images of an idealized Medieval peasant life, ends with a chorale-like refrain borrowed from the music of the alto solo in the Third Symphony. The sleigh bells and accompanying music of the first movement return (the noted English musicologist Sir Donald Tovey dubbed these, rather ingloriously, “farm-yard noises”) to mark the beginnings of further stanzas. For the concluding stanza, Mahler executed a harmonic sleight-of-hand as the music moves from its G major base to the airy key of E major. More than just a technical device, this gesture gives a special meaning to the closing text, “There’s no music at all on earth, Which can ever compare with ours,” sung by the heaven-blessed child. Its beauty, calm and simplicity are among the most pacific moments in all of music.


Four Last Songs for Soprano and Orchestra
Richard Strauss (1864-1949)

Composed in 1948.
Premiered on May 22, 1950 in London, conducted by Wilhelm Furtwängler with Kirsten Flagstad as soloist.

Strauss largely withdrew from public life after 1935 to his villa at Garmisch-Partenkirchen in the lovely Bavarian Alps. He lived there throughout the War, spared the physical ravages of the conflict, but deeply wounded by the loss of many friends and by the bombing of Dresden, Munich and Vienna. In October 1945, under the threat of being called before the Denazification Board, he moved to Switzerland, where he lived for the next four years. He and his wife, Pauline, stayed in various hotels in Lugano and Pontresina (her shrewish tantrums and complaints led to frequent managerial requests for them to seek lodgings elsewhere) before settling into the Palace Hotel in Montreux. Strauss was cleared by the Board in June 1948, but chose to stay in Switzerland for medical treatment that winter, returning to Garmisch in May 1949. Though increasingly feeble during his Swiss sojourn, his mind was clear, and he continued to compose — a Concerto for Oboe, the Duet Concertino for Clarinet, Bassoon and Strings, and the surpassingly beautiful Four Last Songs.

Strauss’ years in Switzerland were ones of reflective meditation — re-reading Goethe, composing a little, studying again the beloved score of Tristan — during which he put the finishing touches on what he called an “eighty-year, industrious, honorable and good German artistic life.” Each of the Four Last Songs treats metaphorically the approach of death — through images of rebirth in spring, autumn, rest and sunset — by returning one final time to the soprano voice, for which he had written so much glorious music. In these moving compositions, Strauss left what Neville Cardus described as “the most consciously and most beautifully delivered ‘Abschied’ [‘farewell’] in all music.” As though bringing round full the cycle of his life’s work, Strauss quoted in the closing pages of Im Abendrot a theme from his tone poem Death and Transfiguration, written six decades earlier. Of these Four Last Songs, warm and wise rather than bitter and fearful, Michael Kennedy wrote, “The vocal line, floating, curving, soaring in an ecstasy of cantilena, is given a backcloth of Strauss’ most glowing, richly harmonized, detailed and evocative orchestration. Indeed, the voice becomes almost a solo instrument.... [There is] no suggestion of religious consolation, even in extremis. The beauty of the world and the beauty of the female voice were uppermost in his thoughts to the end. Has there ever been so conscious a farewell in music, or one so touchingly effective and artistically so good?”


Dance of the Seven Veils from Salome, Op. 54
Richard Strauss

Composed 1903-1905.
Premiered on December 9, 1905 in Dresden, conducted by the composer.

Seldom in the history of music has a work had more immediate and wide-spread impact than Salome. The opera’s libretto was based on the controversial play by Oscar Wilde which the author described to Sarah Bernhardt, whom he intended to star in the first production, as “quelque chose de curieux et de sensuel.” So curious and sensual was it, in fact, that the British censor forbade the premiere planned for London in 1892, and it was not until four years later that the play was finally seen, in a production in Paris. Strauss first encountered the drama in a German translation (Wilde wrote the play in French) during a time when it was very popular in that country, and he decided immediately that it was proper grist for his operatic mill.

In the opera’s lurid story, Salome, the step-daughter of King Herod, has conceived an overwhelming but unrequited passion for the prophet John the Baptist, a prisoner in Herod’s palace. Herod, who himself lusts for his stepdaughter, agrees to give her whatever she requests in return for her dancing for him. She exacts his solemn promise, and performs the Dance of the Seven Veils, after which she demands her reward: the head of the Baptist. Herod, horrified, at first refuses, but to no avail. Salome demands the prophet’s head. The executioner descends into the cistern where John is being kept. Salome hovers above, wildly expectant. The executioner passes to her a silver salver, upon which lies the severed head of the prophet. Salome seizes it and begins the grisly final scene of opera, which culminates by her kissing the dead man’s lips. Herod is so revolted that he orders his soldiers to kill her. They crush Salome beneath their shields.

Strauss left instructions for the choreographer indicating the general nature of Salome’s infamous Dance of the Seven Veils: “A purely Oriental dance, as serious and controlled as possible, thoroughly restrained — greater movement only in the C-sharp minor passage, and in the last 2/4 a rather orgiastic climax.”

©2005 Dr. Richard E. Rodda


Das Himmlische Leben (“The Heavenly Life”)

Wir geniessen die himmlischen Freuden, We revel in heavenly pleasures,
D’rum tun wir das Irdische meiden. Leaving all that is earthly behind us.
Kein weltlich’ Getümmel No worldly turmoil
Hört man nicht im Himmel! Is heard in heaven;
Lebt alles in sanftester Ruh’! We all live in sweetest peace.

Wir führen ein englisches Leben! We lead an angelic existence,
Sind dennoch ganz lustig daneben! And so we are perfectly happy.
Wir tanzen und springen, We dance and leap,
Wir hüpfen und singen! And skip and sing;
Sankt Peter im Himmel sieht zu! Saint Peter in Heaven looks on.

Johannes das Lämmlein auslasset, Saint John has lost his lambkin,
Der Metzger Herodes drauf passet! And butcher Herod is lurking:
Wie führen ein geduldig’s, We lead a patient,
Unschuldig’s, geduldig’s, Guiltless, patient,
Ein liebliches Lämmlein zu Tod! Darling lambkin to death.

Sankt Lukas den Ochsen tät schlachten Saint Luke is slaying the oxen,
Ohn’ einig’s Bedenken und Achten; Without the least hesitation;
Der Wein kost’t kein Heller Wine costs not a farthing
Im himmlischen Keller; In the Heavenly tavern;
Die Englein, die backen das Brot. The angels bake the bread.

Gut’ Kräuter von allerhand Arten, Fine sprouts of every description,
Die wachsen im himmlischen Garten! Are growing in Heaven’s garden.
Gut’ Spargel, Fisolen, Fine asparagus, fine herbs,
Und was wir nur wollen, And all we desire,
Ganze Schüsseln voll sind uns bereit! Huge platefuls for us are prepared.

Gut’ Äpfel, gut’ Birn’ und gut Trauben! Fine apples, fine pears and fine grapes,
Die Gärtner, die alles erlauben! The gardeners let us pick freely.
Willst Rehbock, willst Hasen? You want venison, hare?
Auf offener Strassen In the open streets
Sie laufen herbei! They go running around.

Sollt’ ein Festtag etwa kommen, And when there’s a holiday near,
Alle Fische gleich mit Freuden angeschwommen! All the fishes come joyfully swimming;
Dort läuft schon Sankt Peter And off runs Saint Peter
Mit Netz und mit Köder, With net and with bait,
Zum himmlischen Weiher hinein. Towards the celestial pond.
Sankt Martha die Köchin muss sein! Saint Martha must be the cook!

Kein Musik ist ja nicht auf Erden, There’s no music at all on earth
Die uns’rer verglichen kann werden. Which can ever compare with ours.
Elftausend Jungfrauen Eleven thousand virgins
Zu tanzen sich trauen! Are set dancing.
Sankt Ursula selbst dazu lacht! Saint Ursula herself laughs to see it!
Cäcilia mit ihren Verwandten Saint Cecilia with her companions
Sind treffliche Hofmusikanten! Are splendid court musicians.
Die englischen Stimmen The angelic voices
Ermuntern die Sinnen! Delight the senses,
Dass Alles für Freuden erwacht. For all things awake to joy.


Frühling (“Spring”)

In dämmrigen Grüften In darkling caves
Träumte ich lang I dreamed long
Von deinen Bäumen und blauen Lüften, of your trees and azure breezes,
Von deinem Duft und Vogelgesang. of your scents and birdsong.

Nun liegst du erschlossen Now you lie revealed
In Gleiss und Zier in glitter and array,
Von Licht übergossen bathed in light
Wie ein Wunder vor mir. like a miracle before me.

Du kennst mich wieder, You know me again,
Du lockest mich zart, you invite me tenderly.
Es zittert durch all meine Glieder There quivers through all my limbs
Deine selige Gegenwart. your blessed presence.

September

Der Garten trauert, The garden is mourning,
Kühl sinkt in die Blumen der Regen. the rain sinks coolly on the flowers,
Der Sommer schauert summertime shudders
Still seinem Ende entgegen. quietly to its close.

Golden tropft Blatt um Blatt Leaf upon golden leaf is dropping
Nieder vom hohen Akazienbaum. down from the tall acacia tree.
Sommer lächelt erstaunt und matt Summer smiles amazed and exhausted,
In den sterbenden Gartentraum. on the dying dream that was this garden.

Lange noch bei den Rosen Long by the roses,
Bleibt er stehen, sehnt sich nach Ruh. it tarries, yearns for rest,
Langsam tut er die (grossen), slowly closes its (great)
Müdegewordenen Augen zu. weary eyes.

Beim Schlaffengehen (“Going to Sleep”)

Nun der Tag mich müd gemacht, Now the day has wearied me.
Soll mein sehnliches Verlangen And my ardent longing shall
Freundlich die gestirnte Nacht the stormy night in friendship
Wie ein müdes Kind empfangen. enfold like a tired child.

Hände lasst von allem Tun, Hands, leave all work,
Stirn vergiss du alles Denken, brow, forget all thought.
Alle meine Sinne nun Now all my senses
Wollen sich in Schlummer senken. long to sink themselves in slumber.

Und die Seele unbewacht And the spirit unguarded
Will in freien Flügen schweben, longs to soar on free wings,
Um im Zauberkreis der Nacht so that, in the magic circle of night,
Tief und tausendfach zu leben. it may live deeply, and a thousandfold.

Im Abendrot (“In the Twilight”)

Wir sind durch Not und Freude Through want and joy we have
gegangen Hand in Hand, walked hand in hand,
vom Wandern ruhn wir (beide) we are both resting from our travels
nun überm stillen Land. now, in the quiet countryside.

Rings sich die Täler neigen, Around us the valleys fold up,
es dunkelt schon die Luft, already the air grows dark,
zwei Lerchen nur noch steigen only two larks still soar
nachträumend in den Duft. wistfully into the balmy sky.

Tritt her und lass sie schwirren, Come here, and let them fly about,
bald ist es Schlafenszeit, soon it is time to sleep.
dass wir uns nicht verirren We must not go astray
in dieser Einsamkeit. in this solitude.

O weiter, stille Friede! O spacious, tranquil peace,
So tief im Abendrot. so profound in the gloaming
Wie sind wir wandermüde — How tired are we of traveling —
ist dies etwa der Tod? is this perchance death?

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