Mahler: Totenfeier

In this live recording from the Royal Festival Hall the OAE shines its musical torch into the realms of some later repertoire, shedding new light on the music of Mahler. Conducted by Principal Artist Vladimir Jurowski, this CD includes Mahler’s 'Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen' (Songs of a Wayfarer), written in the wake of an unhappy affair with a soprano, and the extraordinarily exciting and powerful 'Totenfeier', Mahler’s first foray into orchestral music, and later reworked into the opening movement of his second symphony.

Beside his nine completed symphonies and Das Lied von der Erde, Mahler wrote three ‘freestanding’ symphonic movements: i) Blumine (‘Flower Piece’) – originally the second movement of an orchestral work that became the Symphony No 1; ii) Totenfeier (‘Funeral rites’), the original first movement of the Symphony No 2, described by the composer as the burial of the (probably autobiographical) hero of the preceding symphony, and iii) the Adagio planned as the first movement of his Symphony No 10. Mahler died in 1911, leaving only this and the short third movement in something approaching a performable state; the symphony was finally completed in 1960 by Deryck Cooke.

What The Wild Flowers Tell Me is Benjamin Britten’s arrangement, made in 1941, of the second movement of the Symphony No 3; his version preserves the essence of Mahler’s original, but in a practical version for reduced orchestra. At the time, Mahler’s symphonies were not a staple of the repertoire, and Britten – who felt a special affinity with the Austrian composer – was hoping to bring his work to a wider audience. Indeed, in 1967 Britten conducted the first modern performance of Blumine as an independent movement.

The validity of the approach that Paavo Järvi and the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra take to Mahler was clearly proven at concerts in 2008:

“The wide gamut of articulation favoured by the Principal Conductor of the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra found optimum opportunities for deployment. What The Wild Flowers Tell Me showed the musicians, on stunning form, seamlessly following Järvi’s direction, with its emphasis on subtlety, aristocratic refinement and bucolic modesty.” Frankfurter Rundschau

“Gustav Mahler’s Totenfeier, which in its revised version became the first movement of his second symphony, is not a lament, but a ritual … Anyone who favours lush, Hollywood-style Mahler will not feel at home with Järvi and his orchestra; but anyone who wants to hear how this music works can expect a conclusive demonstration.” Frankfurter Rundschau

Paavo Järvi has made recordings of music by Nordic and Estonian composers for Virgin Classics and he conducts his Frankfurt orchestra in a forthcoming release of Brahms’ Piano Concerto No 2 with Nicholas Angelich.