I promised my table neighbor at the Gala 'souper' that I would listen to Mahler. Although he suggested I might begin by listening to his symphonies, the CD, I happened upon in our stack of CDs was Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau singing Mahler's song cyles Gesellen, Kindertotenleider, Ruckertleider.
It comes as no surprise that Bellini's 'Somnambule' brought to mind Mahler - particularly because the word 'elegiac' had been mentioned. But, once I've plunged into Mahler's world, Bellini evaporates like a soap bubble.
How appropriate that today happens to be the first real day of spring, starting with golden sunshine and a hint of humid remains: winter decay lifting in the early morning mist. And so, begins the Kindertotenlieder:
(after poems by Friedrich Ruckert)
"And now the sun will rise as bright
as if no ill luck had befallen in the night.
The ill luck befell me alone
And the sun shines all around
You must not enclose the night within you:
you must drown it in eternal light
A little lamp went out in my tent.
Hail to the gladdening light of the world!
Now I understand why such dark flames
were strewn on me when you looked at me
O eyes! O eyes!
As if in one look
you would compress your whole force
I did not know then (for mists surrounded me,
woven by fate to dazzle me).
that the beam was already turning towards home,
there, whence all beams spring
You wanted to tell me with your rays:
We long to stay near you
but fate will not let us.
Look at us now, for soon we shall be far away.
These that are eyes today,
in nights to come will be stars."
In his essay, Michael Kennedy compares Mahler's song cycle to the Winterreisen, except, in this case, the disconsolate wanderer begins his journey in the spring. In real life, Mahler composed the song cyle in 1883-1885. Certainly, rejected love and the recent loss of two brothers (followed soon afterward by the death of his 4-year-old daughter) are some of the tragedies that influenced the haunting melodies of Mahler's song cycle.
Kennedy notes that the song cycles are often sung by mezzo sopranos but, he adds:
"there can be little doubt that the texts imply a male voice. Is is a measure of the artistry of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau that, as one listens, one cannot imagine any voice but a baritone's in that music."
Thanks, cher Ami Voisin du Gala, for mentioning Mahler!
