Mahler: Des Antonius von Padua Fischpredigt (Des Knaben Wunderhorn)

Israeli conductor Gary Bertini, chief conductor of the Radio Symphony Orchestra Cologne and director of music at the Frankfurt opera was well known for his wide symphonic repertoire which included acclaimed recordings of the complete Mahler Symphonies.

Collaboration between the maestro of the orchestra and one of the most remarkable contemporary singers can be nothing less than a great moment of Mahler interpretation. Phoenix Edition is delighted to bring together these two masters of the Mahler genre.

All the songs found their way into some of Mahler’s Symphonies; The “Songs of a Wayfarer”present throughout the First Symphony, songs from “The Youth’s Magic Horn“ found their way into the Second and Fourth Symphonies and the sentiments of the Rückert Lieder into Symphonies 5, 6 and 7. The “Kindertotenlieder” in particular contrast the polyphonic sound of wind phrases and the string cantilena with harp sounds reminiscent of the original piano versions.

Hakan Hagegard concludes this CD with songs about which the conductor Bruno Walter once observed: “Mahler found everything that moved his soul in the ‘Youth’s Magic Horn’; and even more, he found it described just as he himself perceived it to be: nature, piety, desire, love, leave-taking, death, the joy of youth […] – all of that was alive in him as it was alive in the poetry, and so his songs burst forth.”

The cosmos of Mahler’ songs is by nature smaller and more straightforward than that of his symphonies, hence the technical style of the songs is also simpler and more limited, never touching upon the borders of the possible in this musical world, as do the symphonies. Yet within these narrow confines and with this modest vocabulary, Mahler achieves an intensity of expression which is hardly inferior to that of his symphonies.