Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich conducted by David Zinman
I - "Das Trinklied vom Jammer der Erde" Allegro pesante: 0:00
II - "Der Einsame im Herbst" Etwas schleichend. Ermüdet: 8:37
III - "Von der Jugend" Behaglich heiter : 18:37
IV - "Von der Schönheit" Comodo e dolcissimo: 21:46
V - "Der Trunkene im Frühling" Allegro. Keck aber nicht zu schnell: 29:01
VI - "Der Abschied" Schwer: 33:16
The symphony "Das Lied von der Erde" has its origins in the summer of the year 1907, but it was not composed until 1908. Mahler was not in the mood for composition during his holidays in 1907. He was interested in reading a volume of Chinese poems adapted to German, Die chinesische Flöte. It was a gift from a family friend, Theobald Pollak.
During the vacations of 1908, Mahler returned to Europe going to Toblach, the current Dobbiaco, in South Tyrol, currently on loan to Italy. Located in a beautiful valley in front of the impressive mountains of the Dolomites it is an ideal place for hiking and mountain sports. But the state of Mahler's heart did not allow him to engage in any activity in nature, from which came his main source of inspiration. Sick both physically and morally, he could not apply his best medicine, as it was for him to achieve the ascent to one of the many mountains in the area. It seems that after a good walk the diseases of the spirit are evaded.
His crisis in the end was overcome by his creative work. The second lieder ended it in the month of July. They followed the third, the first, the fourth and the last one ended on September 1. He was reborn from his ashes with the composition of this work, which so clearly exposes his crises. After returning to New York and in the free moments of winter, revises the work and its orchestration. The provisional title is "Die Flöte von Jade". Actually it was his ninth symphony, but this name terrified him. The title thought by Mahler was "Symphony for contralto, tenor and great orchestra", omitting the number. The number 9 reminded him that it was the same as the last symphonies that both Beethoven, his great reference, and Bruckner and Schubert could complete. I thought that if this were his ninth symphony it would be the last. His superstitious fear was endorsed by his illness.
In the following winter, in 1910, when he returned to New York with his Ninth Symphony finished, which was actually the tenth, he found that the curse had not been fulfilled. Then he gave it the title "The Song of the Earth translated from Chinese", writing at the bottom of the page "Ninth Symphony".
Mahler kept the work without making it known. He only entrusts it to his friend Bruno Walter, who, after Mahler dies, keeps the manuscript of the unpublished work. Mahler never set the date of its premiere. After his death, Bruno Walter directed it in his honor in Munich, on November 20, 1911. The success was tremendous, giving his author the category of immortal.
The adapter for the poems of "Die chinesische Flöte" was Hans Bethge, a young literary man who did not understand a single word of Chinese. His work was the adaptation in free German-language verses of a French translation of a collection of Chinese poetry. The adaptation of Bethge comprises eighty poems, most of the eighteenth century, to which he added some romantic touches.
The original poems of all the poems used by Mahler, except for the second and fourth, belong to Li Tai Po, an official of the Chinese imperial court of the Tang dynasty, known as the prince of poetry. The rest of the poems belong to lesser-known poets such as Ts'ien Ts'i, Mong-Kao-Jèn and Wang-Wei. Mahler made his adaptation by adding original verses of his.
Like his previous symphony, a choral symphony, this is a symphony formed by lieds, something already experienced in his early works. A symphonic work with soloist voices incorporated. It consists of two movements that open and close the work containing three intermezzi, with the function of scherzos. The first movement is the initial allegro, followed by a andante. As in his third symphony ends with an extensive adagio.
(Description continued in the comment section)