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The Scotsman, 16 Aug 2002 |
Susan Nickalls |
Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde, Edinburgh 2002
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Das Lied von der Erde
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Usher Hall, Edinburgh |
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THESE late-night musical night-caps at the Usher Hall are
fast becoming the hottest classical tickets in town. Mahler's Das Leid von
der Erde (Song of the Earth) was to be his ninth symphony, but instead the
superstitious composer gave a name to this symphony/song cycle hybrid,
producing one of the most enduring and haunting works of the 20th century.
Schoenberg's arrangement of the piece for chamber ensemble has become
equally popular over the years. This profound and intimate celebration of
nature and the human spirit was given an inspired performance by the
Edinburgh Festival Ensemble conducted by Garry Walker. Both tenor Jonas
Kaufmann and mezzo-soprano Alice Coote delivered these songs based on
eighth-century Chinese poems with clarity and brilliance. Kaufmann's more
boisterous drinking songs alternated with the contemplative and mellow
hymns to autumn sung by Coote. While the sparseness of the orchestral
textures in this acoustic did not always support the tenor voice because
of the orchestration, this didn't seem to matter in what was otherwise a
sublime performance. |
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