Das klagende Lied, cantata for soloists, chorus & orchestra
Lulu-Suite, 5 symphonic pieces from the opera for soprano & orchestra ("Lulu-Symphonie")
Gustav Mahler's Das klagende Lied (The Lamenting Song) was the composer's first major work, a dramatic cantata based on a violent fairy tale involving a buried bone that is carved into a flute whose song tells the story of the bone's original owner's murder. Mahler revised the work extensively over two decades, and it exists in two major versions (the one presented here is in two sections). It began as a gigantic work, eventually trimmed down to be sizable, and performances have been rare, even more so given the scarcity of ...
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Gustav Mahler's Das klagende Lied (The Lamenting Song) was the composer's first major work, a dramatic cantata based on a violent fairy tale involving a buried bone that is carved into a flute whose song tells the story of the bone's original owner's murder. Mahler revised the work extensively over two decades, and it exists in two major versions (the one presented here is in two sections). It began as a gigantic work, eventually trimmed down to be sizable, and performances have been rare, even more so given the scarcity of resources attending the activities of most major orchestras. Conductor Pierre Boulez, 86 when the recording was made at the 2011 Salzburg Festival, probably knows the work as well as anybody, and the recording is well within his usual rage of precise, rather passionless performances. Tempos are on the quick side, small details are well articulated, and everything moves like clockwork. These virtues also apply to Berg's Lulu Suite, a work particularly close to Boulez's musical heart,...
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