Mahler - van Dieren - Ravel - Delage - Stravinsky - Zemlinsky - Oriental Inspirations

Gustav Mahler
Das Lied von der Erde (Cantonese version)
Ning Liang
Warren Mok
Singapore Symphony Orchestra
Lan Shui, conductor
BIS-1547
Release dateOct 2007
Total time71'14
digital download, booklet, covers

The poems that in 1908 inspired Mahler to Das Lied von der Erde had been printed a year earlier in Hans Bethge's Die chinesische Flöte ('The Chinese Flute'). But they had already before that travelled huge distances in both time and space. Hans Bethge's poems were in fact paraphrases of Hans Hellmann's 1905 collection Chinesische Lyrik, which itself was based on French translations of 8th century Tang dynasty poems. The Hong Kong-based enthusiast Daniel Ng has now, through untiring research, established the most likely sources of Bethge's poems, and prepared a Chinese Song of the Earth, replacing the German texts with the original Chinese poems. The result, soon to be published, has been recorded with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra conducted by Lan Shui, and the Chinese-born international stars Ning Liang and Warren Mok singing the texts by Li Bai, Wang Wei and other Tang master poets. 




Rotterdam-born Bernard van Dieren (1887-1936) settled during his early twenties in London, where his music enjoyed vociferous support from the likes of Peter Warlock and Cecil Gray. Composed between 1912 and 1914, his First Symphony is scored for five soloists, chorus and orchestra, and sets words from Die chinesische Flöte, a 1907 volume of ancient Chinese poetry translated by Hans Bethge (1876-1946) that also inspired Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde. ‘Der Trunkene im Frühling’ makes an appearance in van Dieren’s work, too, where the bass soloist’s portamento at ‘Den ganzen, lieben Tag!’ (track 7, 2'19") leaps out in the context of a nocturnal, frequently delicate canvas which boasts much subtlety of texture and a notably adventurous harmonic palette (I was most reminded of Schoenberg). Highly imaginative touches and incidental beauties are legion, although, even after a number of hearings, I’m not yet convinced that the symphony adds up to an organic whole. Still, I do feel it’s worth persevering – which is precisely why recordings such as this are so invaluable. 
The couplings are hardly less tantalising. The Introit to Topers’ Tropes from 1921 (intended as the orchestral prelude to a large-scale choral work based on ‘The Discourse of the Drinkers’ from Rabelais’s Gargantua and Pantagruel) rouses itself from hazy slumber to bacchanalian revelry over 13 quirky minutes. Delius meets Busoni in the Elegie for cello and orchestra, probably written around 1910 and another agreeably individual essay that contains some genuinely haunting inspiration.
I’m happy to report that William Boughton secures commendable results from a strong line-up of singers and his assembled BBC NOW forces; Raphael Wallfisch is at his customarily eloquent, self-effacing best in the Elegie. Excellently recorded in Cardiff’s Hoddinott Hall, and knowledgeably annotated by Alastair Chisholm, this is a most enterprising and fascinating release.Andrew Achenbach

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Maurice Ravel: Scheherezade
Claude Debussy: La Damoiselle Elue
Benjamin Britten: Les Illuminations
Sylvia McNair
Susan Graham
Seiji Ozawa
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Philips 1998
flac, cue, log, scans



The three song cycles assembled on this 1999 Philips release are voluptuous and sensitive, even if the musical setting for Britten's collection of short poems is in a somewhat less ethereal world than the other two.
The highlight, as one might expect from its greater popularity, is the opening composition, Maurice Ravel's Sheherazade. Inspired by the impressionism of Debussy, Ravel's Sheherazade inhabits a far different landscape than Rimsky-Korsakov's earlier, more literal series of tone poems. The Ravel is all shapes and shadows and sinuous lines.
Debussy's early piece, La damoiselle ellue, is likewise more figuratively evocative than literal. It is based on the verses of British poet and illustrator Dante Gabriel Rossetti describing his painting of "The Blessed Damozel," and adds to the mix a chorus with soprano narration. In some ways it is more lyrical than the Ravel and equally atmospheric.
English composer, conductor, and pianist Benjamin Britten's Les illuminations is the newer of the three works, the composer having completed it in 1939, based on poems by French poet Arthur Rimbaud. It is the most eclectic of the written compositions represented here, and, appropriately, the musical accompaniment is the most varied, from serene and seductive to almost raucous by turns. To suggest that all of this music is quite sensuous and sexual in nature would be an understatement.
American opera and Broadway soprano Sylvia McNair sings the title roles expressively yet without fuss. They are reasonably straightforward renderings that allow the songs to breath in their own right. Some listeners may prefer more dramatic, perhaps even more sensitive, readings, but no other interpretation, I'm sure, captures the simple beauty of the poetry any better than these. Maestro Seiji Ozawa's accompaniment, likewise, is unobtrusive, serving only to reinforce the mood and never drawing attention to itself, while the Boston Symphony play with a velvety smoothness.
The Philips sound is slightly dark, with Ms. McNair clearly at stage front. There is good orchestral depth, a sometimes soft high end, 
and little need for extended dynamic impact or a sweeping frequency range. The recording does not sparkle, but it doesn't need to. The singing and phrasing sparkle enough. John J. Puccio, Classical Candor