Das Lied von der Erde: a performer’s perspective
The British conductor Kenneth Woods tells us what sets Das Lied von der Erde apart from other works by Mahler. Is it autobiography?
”The beloved earth everywhere blossoms and greens in springtime, anew. Everywhere and forever the distances brighten blue! Forever… forever… These were the last words Mahler ever set to music, and, unlike the rest of the Song of the Earth, they were not those of an ancient poet, but his own. Mahler, the master of contradiction and paradox, ends a work that is so universal in scope with just the briefest hint of autobiography- almost a secret confession, hidden in this epic panorama.”
To listen to the work, as performed by the OSM under Kent Nagano…