During a break in rehearsals with the Israel Philharmonic, Leonard Bernstein sat down at the piano to film an introduction to the poetry and music of Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde
I feel there's so much to thank to Bernstein, not only he was a great composer and conductor but also a fine teacher, a quality that helped many of us to a better understanding of music.Thank you Maestro ewig ewig
I love that Bernstein felt, not just as a fellow conductor, but as a fellow composer, too, such an affinity with Mahler, that this gives him an audacious freedom with his scores. But it all works, Bernstein could absolutely get away with it.
Oh Lord I love the piece and this director!!! Brilliant. Such a composer, musician, and teacher. Bernstein is one of the GREATS! Hoping our children and grandchildren will appreciate this talent.
What’s so amazing is the ending of the first song. Like Bernstein says, the tenor builds up the wine as being valuable and then tears it all apart. "A full cup of wine at the right time is worth more than all the riches of the Earth." / “Not even a hundred years is man allowed to indulge in all the rotten excesses of the Earth." Then, the hallucination to scare his audience, remind them that death is always coming. "Now take your wine, now it’s time, friends! Drink your wine to the dregs." I always had the feeling the last line was bitter, mocking, sardonic. He may as well have sung, "Drink up, you sorry bastards." I’m not sure I’ve ever heard that musically realized
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Thank you very much for posting. While this is not my favorite version of Das Lied it is fascinating to hear Bernstein's thoughts and to see the formative process of bringing a composition to performance. As Mahler said all the hard work is done in rehearsal.
Her objection is one I have felt with some of Lenny's other work. The Third Movement of the Mahler 9th is an example. He takes an impossible tempo with the Vienna Philharmonic recording and it gets pretty chaotic in places. He was a true genius, just not a perfect one.
@@selini52 but it can, it can be set as a competition for orchestrators to choose appropriate instrumentation for human voices and even change Mahler's orchestration where jury would decide which solution sounds more Mahlerian and which doesn't. If Berlioz initially imagined a bass or a baritone singing in the 2nd movement of his "Funeral and Triumphal symphony" and later replaced him with a trombone solo and if various very effective arrangements in Szell's renditions with Clevelanders exist (in recording industry circulating for at least half a century) of excerpts from Wagner's "Ring" where voices are effectively replaced with instruments, then I wold like you to elaborate why would purely instrumental arrangement of Das Lied "be a contradiction"?
There is no purely orchestral version, because the texts are so integral to the music. But then, if you wish to try composing one, apply yourself! Maybe the final movement of Mahler's 9th is close to the orchestral music without text--not literally, but in the spirit of the music.
@@williammckane2466 when text is and when it isn't integral to the music? You have Ralph Vaughan Williams' beautiful orchestral arrangement of his "Serenade to Music" where in the original 1938 version you have 16 soloists plus orchestra. RVW made another arranged of the same piece for a choir (without soloists) plus orchestra . You have his orchestral arrangements of British Isles' folk songs and hymns, reaching to the 16th century English vocal music. Now I'll ask again: when text is and when it isn't integral to the music?
@@gorankatic40000bc Text is never actually integral to music. I make a point of not knowing the text before going into a new piece of music, and I can't listen to anything with lyrics in English. All that vocals do (especially when in English) is distract from the musical quality of the work. I love Mahler's music, but much of it I can't listen to because I dislike operatic soloing so much. Vocals are basically just something to be tolerated, so a purely orchestral version of Das Liede von Der Erde would be welcomed by someone like me. This reminds me of Shostakovich's 13th 'Babi Yar'. People tell you "Oh, the first time you hear it, you must sit with a translation of the text and follow along..." - piss off. I don't want to understand what the lyrics are about, I want to know nothing about the subtext and just enjoy the sound of the music for what it is. All I care about are the aural qualities of the music I'm listening to, and as I said singing/lyrics only distract from that. I don't listen to Mahler or Shostakovich to contemplate life and philosophy- I listen to Mahler and Shostakovich because I love how their music sounds. Mahler's music that does feature vocal soloing, the actual words could be total gibberish for all I care- all that matters is the sound of the music, and people place FAR too much importance on philosophical implications of the music in question. Just stop, stop and enjoy the sound of the beautiful music.
I’m so distracted with Mahler and Bernstein, that I could care less about the chemistry class I am supposed to be doing. Mahler is the only one that keeps me going during quarantine. I don’t feel so alone in this misery and grief. Chemistry means nothing to me other than chains that keep me from flying away from this hell I’m stuck in.
The sound a little sloppy but you can tell they know this music ! Bernstein will make it alright ! Ludwig and Lenny were great friends but she is the consummate professional and tuff she knows what she can do !
"Shalom chaverim" he said. It was like family to him. What amazes me is the pervasive disregard that people who post in RU-vid have for the dates this happened. No wonder most people suck at history. It was 1972 in Tel Aviv.
"It doesn't matter, who's going to hear the words anyways?" that had to hurt lmao thats like being a pilot and being told "who's going to board your plane anyways?"
Correction: The movement I was referring to was the fourth, "Von der Schönheit." But Bernstein was also accelerating tempi, though not as crazily, in the third, "Von der Jugend" mvmt.
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Yeah, pega17pl, this clip is astounding. Great as Bernstein was at his best (try his recording of Mahler's 2nd Sym. with the London Symphony Orchestra), he was also capable of extreme emotional buffoonery -- in this case involving Mezzo Abuse.
Interesting elucidation, but I think Bernstein had a tendency to exaggerate in his interpretation of Mahler. Christa Ludwig was right to complain about the excessive tempo in "Von der Schönheit"; and the orchestra sounds too loud, too... Just listen to her recording with Klemperer/Philharmonia Orchestra, IMO it's much more convincing!
I disagree, the Klemperer recording is much too slow. The Madchen character in Mvt. IV is excited at the looks of her lover, almost out of breath, so it's fitting that the tempo reflects the psychology of her character. Plus it sounds dank af in Bernstein's tempo.
pianopera I agree w you entirely & disagree w another commenter below you & just above me who finds Klemperer too slow. Not in Das Lied he isn’t. And w both Wunderlich & Ludwig entirely in his side (Mahler’s via Klemperer’s), it couldn’t be better. Ludwig is so young here & yet so right. His sighing wearingly is frankly annoying. He does so exaggerate here. He takes all the poetry, the Chinese out of it.
Did you know this master piece is full of "Blue Notes"? Sorry, not to lost bookmark of the master work of an American music students on RU-vid about this. - Cheers, Heinz
Exceptionnel document nous montrant toute la personnalité de Bernstein liée à la personne de Mahler !Malheureusement la traduction laisse pas mal à désirer....
2:43 - Lenny tries to keep pace with the galloping horses described in the set. But in such a tempo singing turns into speaking. That's why Christa complains: "That's too fast. I cannot speak. Really. A touch (slower)!" Poor Lenny has to sell this tempo as "so much slower than we, I ever do it", but astonishingly it was the correct tempo, making the singer breathless to give an impression of the tumultuous riders. Christa only was used to the slower speed of Klemperer's interpretation.
Yes, that's one reason why I prefer the Klemperer version. You can take the real tempo of a galloping small asian horse and demand the singer to cope with it. But to preserve singing instead of panting out words you have to make a compromise. Ambitious Lenny didn't want that. Maybe tunnel view.
Bernstein was a great conductor and the 20th century's essential advocate for Mahler. But he had an Achilles heel: hyper-emotional showboat excess. This reading of "Von der Jugend," which Ludwig properly objects to, is not just too fast. It's artistically insane, and utterly untrue to the composition.
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I used to love Mahler..or thought I did..his music seemed a continuation of the great German/Austrian Romantic tradition. But it's not. It's hysterical and not really German at all. Unfortunately, this gifted musician was in fact the tragic character of Thomas Mann's Death In Venice, a composer/conductor who was attracted to young boys.
Thomas Mann’s novella concerns a writer.Your wilfully ignorant comment confuses the Visconti film with the book,in which the protagonist,becomes obsessed with a boy.who represents his lost vitality and youth.in his dying days.Pathetic Nick!
@@merxeddie6474 No, in fact Mann was informed of Mahler's own admission of his attraction to boys by a fellow author with whom Mahler had shared a train trip conversation. I'm not suggesting that Mahler ever acted upon these impulses, but that's just what he apparently felt. We know that he was a closeted gay man, but so what, right?
what a supremely ignorant comment ..... you are confusing this GREAT composer with a character in a piece of fiction! and he's German thru and thru - is Richard Strauss also 'not German'??
@@brianhammer5107 Technically Mahler was Austrian (born in Czech), but as a Jew in those days he was certainly made aware of his not being German. He actually converted to Catholicism, which is especially pathetic in his case. And as for being a closeted gay man, Lenny could certainly relate, though he didn't have it nearly as bad as Mahler would have had the truth come out.
@@wehaveasituation buddy, I am very well-versed in Classical music and know Mahler's bio extremely well - Austria is a political boundary, not a national one - there are three large nationalities there - the largest being the Germans, along with Swiss and Italians - Mahler was raised as a German, he spoke German as his primary language, he was by culture a German
