Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde

Mahler Das Lied von der Erde (the Song of the Earth) for solo voices and orchestra (1908) is considered Mahler's masterpiece. The dialogue between man, nature and the essence of life had always been at the source of Mahler's inspiration: suffering, the incomprehensibility of the tragic and destructive nature of existence, are seen within the context of nature and the mysterious presence of God, who guides the universe in a manner that eludes our understanding. The true dilemma for Mahler is that of not knowing and not understanding, and nature - mother earth - is man's closest and most understanding companion. In the Song of the Earth, a symphonic/vocal work of impressive size, the intimate accents of Romanticism (that of Brahms, for example) are combined with the extremism of the early 20th century - forms born with Wagner and later developed by Scheonberg's school and transformed into the wonderful song of Berg's Lulu. The poems which make up the subject of the work, based on H. Bethges's German translation of ancient Chinese poems contained in the anthology 'The Chinese flute', are divided as follows: the odd-numbered ones are sung by the tenore, and are characterized by rich, yet often high-pitched and strident sonorities, while the others are sung by a contralto (mezzo-soprano) and are intimate, wiefel and mysterious in expression.