Lan Shui, the conductor, has been the music director of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra since 1997 and is passionate about commissioning and premièring works by Asian composers.
Composition History
Mahler began writing Das Lied von der Erde in early 1908, after losing his favorite daughter, his job at the Vienna State Opera, and being diagnosed with a chronic heart condition.
Interpretation
The Chinese lyrics in this edition are performed in Cantonese because, unlike Mandarin, the lines of the original Tang Dynasty poetry still rhyme when spoken in this dialect.
Composition History
Mahler found inspiration for Das Lied von der Erde in Hans Bethge's Die chinesische Flöte, a collection of paraphrased Tang Dynasty poetry, which he believed reflected his own angst.
Performer Biography
Ning Liang, the mezzo-soprano on this recording, has performed at leading opera houses worldwide, including the Vienna State Opera and the Metropolitan Opera.
Compositional Technique
Mahler's setting of texts for high-voiced male and low-voiced female in Das Lied von der Erde can be seen to follow the Chinese concept of yin and yang.
Interpretation
This version of Mahler's symphonic song cycle, Das Lied von der Erde, substitutes the original German paraphrases of Tang Dynasty poetry with the actual Chinese texts of Li Bai, Qian Qi, Meng Haoran, and Wang Wei.
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