Mahler: Des Knaben Wunderhorn; Adagio from Symphony No.10

Featuring

Pierre Boulez
Christian Gerhaher
Magdalena Kožená
The Cleveland Orchestra
Gustav Mahler

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Recording & Production

This album completes Pierre Boulez's Mahler cycle for Deutsche Grammophon.

Compositional Technique

Gustav Mahler's Adagio from Symphony No. 10 is considered by conductor Pierre Boulez to be a summation of Mahler's previous works and forward-looking in its musical vocabulary.

Performer Biography

Conductor Pierre Boulez discovered Gustav Mahler retrospectively, as Mahler's works were not performed in France during Boulez's youth, leading him to initially focus on composers like Schoenberg, Berg, and Webern.

Interpretation

Pierre Boulez emphasizes that a conductor must feel the form of Mahler's music, not just have an abstract concept, to ensure a natural and spontaneous performance.

Interpretation

Conductor Pierre Boulez finds attempts to complete Mahler's unfinished Tenth Symphony unsatisfying, noting that Mahler's sketches are too rudimentary to infer polyphonic textures.

Compositional Technique

Unlike the complex Adagio from Symphony No. 10, Mahler's Des Knaben Wunderhorn consists of individual miniatures, a compositional form typical of early Romantics like Schubert and Schumann.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Mahler's Des Knaben Wunderhorn combines two extremes: it is anchored in the past through its form, but progressive in its expression and harmonic language.

Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 1, "Titan" (Dresden Staatskapelle, Suitner) / Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen [Prey, Berlin Radio Symphony, K. Sanderling]