Symphony Eight in E flat (1907) - Mahler
May 27, 2016 6:58:37 GMT -5
Post by Uncle Henry on May 27, 2016 6:58:37 GMT -5
Limburg an der Lahn lies in western Hesse between the Taunus and the Westerwald on the river Lahn. It is not to be confused with the Limburg district that straddles the Belgian, Dutch and German borders, where the Limburgian dialect is spoken.
The city of Limburg an der Lahn forms, together with the town of Diez, a middle centre (in terms of Central place theory) but partially functions as an upper centre to western Middle Hesse.
Limburg's residential neighbourhoods reach beyond the town limits; the neighbouring centres of Elz and Diez run seamlessly together.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limburg_an_der_Lahn
The boys of the Limburger Domsingknaben (Limburg Cathedral Singing Boys) here, then, are pure Germans, although they cannot be said to have a particularly German look about them.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limburger_Domsingknaben
Their home is the musical boarding school in Hadamar, next to Limburg. The choir was founded in 1967 by the former bishop of Limburg, Dr. Wilhelm Kempf (with one "F").
I have been looking for a good recording of Mahler's eighth for a while, and this performance fits the bill. It is conducted by Paavo Järvi, born in 1962 in Tallinn in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Besides the aforementioned Domsingknaben we hear the Czech Philharmonic Choir of Brno and the EuropaChorAkademie (of Bremen, I understand), three male solo singers, and four female, to whom a fifth adds herself by holding forth from a balcony, as well as the Francfort Radio Symphony Orchestra. The location is the wonderful Old Opera House of Francfort, past which I would walk daily at one period, gaining inspiration from the motto inscribed upon its frieze:
Dem Wahren Schönen Guten, ("For the true the beautiful the good").
The fusion of song and symphony had been a characteristic of Mahler's early works. In his middle compositional period after 1901, a change of direction led him to produce three purely instrumental symphonies. The Eighth, marking the end of the middle period, returns to a combination of orchestra and voice in a symphonic context. The structure of the work is unconventional; instead of the normal framework of several movements, the piece is in two parts. Part I is based on the Latin text of a 9th-century Christian hymn for Pentecost, Veni creator spiritus ("Come, Creator Spirit"), and Part II is a setting of the words from the closing scene of Goethe's Faust. The two parts are unified by a common idea, that of redemption through the power of "love", a unity conveyed through shared musical themes.
From the beginning Mahler had been convinced of the work's significance; in renouncing the pessimism that had marked much of his music, he offered the Eighth as an expression of confidence in the eternal human spirit. In the period following his expiry, performances were comparatively rare. However, from the mid-20th century onwards the symphony has been heard regularly in concert halls all over the world, and has been recorded many times. While recognising its wide popularity, modern critics have divided opinions on the work; Theodor Adorno and Robert Simpson found its optimism unconvincing, and considered it artistically and musically inferior to Mahler's other symphonies. Conversely, it has also been compared—by Deryck Cooke—to Beethoven's Ninth as a defining human statement for its century.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphony_No._8_%28Mahler%29
Click HERE to experience this performance, and then tell us whether or not the work is a mistake.
And let us pass over the following to-day with a mere chortle:
The city of Limburg an der Lahn forms, together with the town of Diez, a middle centre (in terms of Central place theory) but partially functions as an upper centre to western Middle Hesse.
Limburg's residential neighbourhoods reach beyond the town limits; the neighbouring centres of Elz and Diez run seamlessly together.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limburg_an_der_Lahn
The boys of the Limburger Domsingknaben (Limburg Cathedral Singing Boys) here, then, are pure Germans, although they cannot be said to have a particularly German look about them.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limburger_Domsingknaben
Their home is the musical boarding school in Hadamar, next to Limburg. The choir was founded in 1967 by the former bishop of Limburg, Dr. Wilhelm Kempf (with one "F").
I have been looking for a good recording of Mahler's eighth for a while, and this performance fits the bill. It is conducted by Paavo Järvi, born in 1962 in Tallinn in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Besides the aforementioned Domsingknaben we hear the Czech Philharmonic Choir of Brno and the EuropaChorAkademie (of Bremen, I understand), three male solo singers, and four female, to whom a fifth adds herself by holding forth from a balcony, as well as the Francfort Radio Symphony Orchestra. The location is the wonderful Old Opera House of Francfort, past which I would walk daily at one period, gaining inspiration from the motto inscribed upon its frieze:
Dem Wahren Schönen Guten, ("For the true the beautiful the good").
The fusion of song and symphony had been a characteristic of Mahler's early works. In his middle compositional period after 1901, a change of direction led him to produce three purely instrumental symphonies. The Eighth, marking the end of the middle period, returns to a combination of orchestra and voice in a symphonic context. The structure of the work is unconventional; instead of the normal framework of several movements, the piece is in two parts. Part I is based on the Latin text of a 9th-century Christian hymn for Pentecost, Veni creator spiritus ("Come, Creator Spirit"), and Part II is a setting of the words from the closing scene of Goethe's Faust. The two parts are unified by a common idea, that of redemption through the power of "love", a unity conveyed through shared musical themes.
From the beginning Mahler had been convinced of the work's significance; in renouncing the pessimism that had marked much of his music, he offered the Eighth as an expression of confidence in the eternal human spirit. In the period following his expiry, performances were comparatively rare. However, from the mid-20th century onwards the symphony has been heard regularly in concert halls all over the world, and has been recorded many times. While recognising its wide popularity, modern critics have divided opinions on the work; Theodor Adorno and Robert Simpson found its optimism unconvincing, and considered it artistically and musically inferior to Mahler's other symphonies. Conversely, it has also been compared—by Deryck Cooke—to Beethoven's Ninth as a defining human statement for its century.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphony_No._8_%28Mahler%29
Click HERE to experience this performance, and then tell us whether or not the work is a mistake.
And let us pass over the following to-day with a mere chortle: