Mahler Symphony No. 3

MahlerNew York Philharmonic Symphony No. 3 Petra Lang, mezzo-soprano Women of the Westminster Symphonic Choir The American Boychoir New York Philharmonic Alan Gilbert, Music Director 2 3 Alan Gilbert: The Inaugural Season The 2009–10 season — Alan Gilbert’s About This Series first as Music Director of the Philharmonic In Alan Gilbert: The Inaugural Season, — introduces his vision for the Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic breaks new one that both builds on its rich legacy and ground by being the first orchestra to looks to the future and reflects the diver- offer a season’s worth of recorded music sity of his interests. He sees the Orchestra for download. Offered exclusively through as a place that both celebrates the great- iTunes, this series brings the excitement of est of the classical repertoire and nurtures Alan Gilbert’s first season to an interna- today’s composers and tomorrow’s music. tional audience. Executive Producer: Vince Ford The season’s programming reflects his The concert you have purchased is one Producer, Recording and Mastering Engineer: Lawrence Rock belief in the importance of artistic collabo- of 30 available through the iTunes Pass, ration, his commitment to raising audience which comprises new music (including Performance photos: Chris Lee awareness and understanding of music, New York Philharmonic commissions) and Alan Gilbert portrait: Hayley Sparks and his interest in making the Philharmon- magnificent selections from the orches- Gustav Mahler portrait: New York Philharmonic Archives ic a destination for all. tral repertoire, performed by many of the “I’d like to develop a special kind of world’s top artists and conductors. The Mahler: Symphony No. 3 used by arrangement with Universal Edition A.G., Vienna. rapport and trust with our audience,” Mr. subscrip tion also features bonus content, Gilbert says. “The kind of belief that would such as Alan Gilbert’s onstage com- make them feel comfortable hearing mentaries, and exclusive extras, including Major funding for this recording is provided to the New York Philharmonic by anything we program simply because we additional performances, encores, and Rita E. and Gustave M. Hauser. programmed it. Looking ahead, I hope lectures. my performances with the Orchestra will For more information about the series, Petra Lang's appearance is made possible through the Hedwig van Ameringen Guest Artists consist of our tightly combined human visit nyphil.org/itunes. Endowment Fund. chemistry, a clear persona that is both identifiable and enjoyable.” Programs are supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, New York State Council on the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Instruments made possible, in part, by The Richard S. and Karen LeFrak Endowment Fund. Steinway is the Official Piano of the New York Philharmonic and Avery Fisher Hall. 2 3 New York Philharmonic 4 5 New York Philharmonic Alan Gilbert, Conductor Petra Lang, Mezzo-Soprano Women of the Westminster Symphonic Choir Joe Miller, Director The American Boychoir Fernando Malvar-Ruiz, Director Recorded live September 17–18 & 22, 2009, Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts MAHLER (1860–1911) Symphony No. 3 in D minor (1895–96; rev. through 1906) 1:35:44 Part One 1. Forcefully. Decisively. 33:16 Part Two 2. Tempo di minuetto. Moderately. 9:20 3. Comodo. Scherzando. Unhurriedly. 17:05 4. Very slow. Misterioso. Pianississimo throughout. 8:33 5. Joyous in tempo and jaunty in expression. 4:16 6. Slow. Calm. Deeply felt. 23:14 PETRA LANG WOMEN OF THE WESTMINSTER SYMPHONIC CHOIR THE AMERICAN BOYCHOIR 6 7 Notes on the Program By James M. Keller, Program Annotator Sources and Inspirations Symphony No. 3 in D minor the Attersee. Initially this symphony was to be called The Happy Life, a Summer Mahler wrote his Third Symphony during two Gustav Mahler Night’s Dream (not after Shakespeare summers in the bucolic Upper Austrian village of Steinbach on the Attersee. Many of the mov- ... reviewer’s notes), and each of its six ers and shakers of the music industry were Gustav Mahler once wrote to a music critic movements was to carry an individual title: passing their summers at Bad Ischl, a dozen who was trying to understand his Third “What the Forest Tells Me,” “What the miles to the south, but not Mahler, who sought Symphony: Twilight Tells Me,” “What Love Tells Me,” solitude. Apart from a couple of trips to Bad Ischl to visit Brahms, he spent the greater part “What the Flowers of the Meadow Tell Me,” of his time in Steinbach alone, in a cabin at the I find it quite strange that people talking “What the Cuckoo Tells Me,” and “What end of a field, near the shore of the lake itself. about nature only make mention of flow- the Child Tells Me.” The furnishings inside his “composing ers, birds, and fresh air. But nobody seems As Mahler worked on the symphony he house” included a desk, a couple of chairs, a stove, and a baby grand piano. Mahler entered to know Pan, the god Dionysos. Nature is revised his program and titles consider- his composing house at seven in the morning able to show all those phenomena, both In Short ably. In 1896, just after completing the and stayed there until at least mid-afternoon, pleasant and horrible, and I wanted to Born: July 7, 1860, in Kalischt (Kalište), Bohemia, near work, he enumerated the movements’ sometimes on into the evening if his creative the town of Humpolec put these things in a kind of evolutionary revised titles in a letter to his friend, the juices were really flowing. That Mahler’s Third Symphony is to a great extent a reflection of Died: May 18, 1911, in Vienna development in my work. critic Max Marschalk: the landscape in which it was created cannot Work composed: the summers of 1895 and 1896, at be doubted. When Bruno Walter visited the Mahler’s Third Symphony is indeed a Steinbach am Attersee, in Upper Austria, drawing on Part One: composer at Steinbach in July 1896, Mahler, material from earlier songs; revised through 1906 towering monument to nature, but it is not “Pan Awakes. Summer Marches In. seeing the young conductor survey the jaw- dropping scenery, said to him, “You need not so entirely reassuring a work as its subject World premiere: the complete symphony, June (Pan’s Procession)” stand staring at that; I have already composed might lead one to expect. Nonetheless, 9, 1902, in Krefeld, Germany, with contralto Luise Part Two: it all.” this longest of Mahler’s symphonies is one Geller-Wolter, Mahler conducting the orchestra and “What the Flowers of the Meadow choruses of the Festival of the Allgemeiner deutscher of his most approachable, most relaxed, Tell Me” Musikverein; individual movements had already been and least haunted by nightmares and performed in 1896 and 1897 “What the Animals of the Forest apocalyptic visions. Tell Me” Because responsibilities on the podium New York Philharmonic premiere: February 28, “What Man Tells Me” 1922, Willem Mengelberg, conductor, Julia Clausson, completely occupied him during concert “What the Angels Tell Me” contralto, with the St. Cecilia Club and the Boys’ Choir seasons, Mahler largely relegated his of Father Finn’s Paulist Choristers; this was the work’s “What Love Tells Me” composing to the summer months, which New York City premiere he invariably spent as a near hermit at The movements were separated into one bucolic site or another in the Austrian two uneven parts: the first movement countryside. When he came to write his had already led him through increasingly (itself lasting just over a half hour, which Third Symphony, during the summers of prestigious music directorships at Bad Hall is to say, a third of the symphony’s total 1895 and 1896, he was escaping the (his first professional appointment, which running time) alone constituting the first concert-season rigors connected to his he obtained in 1880), Ljubljana, Olomouc, part, and the remaining five movements, directorship of the orchestra and opera in Kassel, Prague, Leipzig, and Budapest. the second. Hamburg. He had assumed that post in Mahler’s preferred summer retreat at That’s how things stood until the piece 1891, following a peripatetic career that that time was the village of Steinbach on was finally premiered in 1902, when 8 9 Notes on the Program (continued) Texts and Translations Fourth Movement Mahler suddenly decided to dispense with Instrumentation: four flutes (all doubling pic- O Mensch! Gib acht! Oh, man, give heed! Was spricht die tiefe Mitternacht? What does deep midnight say? the programmatic titles along with most of colo), four oboes (one doubling English horn), “Ich schlief, ich schlief — , I slept! I slept! the rather detailed programmatic markings four clarinets (one doubling E-flat clarinet and Aus tiefem Traum bin ich erwacht: — From a deep dream have I awakened. he had previously placed within the course one doubling bass clarinet) plus another E-flat Die Welt ist tief, The world is deep, of the movements. Mahler wrote in a letter clarinet, four bassoons (one doubling contra- Und tiefer als der Tag gedacht. And deeper than the day had thought! Tief ist ihr Weh — , Deep is its pain! to the conductor Josef Krug-Waldsee: bassoon), eight horns, four trumpets, post Lust — tiefer noch als Herzeleid; Joy deeper still than heartbreak! horn (offstage), four trombones, tuba, timpani Weh spricht: Vergeh! Pain speaks: Vanish! Those titles were an attempt on my part (two players), orchestra bells, snare drum Doch alle Lust will Ewigkeit — But all joy seeks eternity, to provide non-musicians with something (plus two offstage), triangle, tambourine, bass — Will tiefe, tiefe Ewigkeit!” Seeks deep, deep eternity! to hold onto and with signposts for the drum with attached cymbal, suspended cym- intellectual or, better, the expressive bals, tam-tam, rute, two harps, and strings, in Fifth Movement content of the various movements and addition to a mezzo-soprano soloist, women’s Es sungen drei Engel einen süssen Gesang, Three angels were singing a sweet song: Mit Freuden es selig im Himmel klang; With joy it resounded blissfully in Heaven.

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