CARNEGIE HALL PRESENTS
Staatskapelle Berlin

Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage
Wednesday, May 13th, 2009 at 8:00 PM

“ Barenboim digs deep to express Mahlerian angst.”—London Sunday Times

Mahler wrote his tender Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (1883–1885) as a memorial to his love for a young soprano. In complete contrast is his controversial Seventh Symphony of 1904–1905, whose mysterious opening evokes the sound of rowing across a mountain lake near the composer’s house. Yet the symphony concludes with surprisingly bright and boisterous music, which Mahler biographer Henry-Louis de La Grange called “the most insane … and most provocative of all his final movements.”

Staatskapelle Berlin
Daniel Barenboim, Music Director and Conductor
Thomas Hampson, Baritone

MAHLER Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen
MAHLER Symphony No. 7

Perspectives: Daniel Barenboim

Program is approximately 1 hour, 55 minutes, including one intermission.

Program Notes:

In June 1905, Mahler headed back to his summer residence at Maiernigg, on the Wörther See, to continue work on his Seventh Symphony. He could not find the way into the composition. He took off for the Dolomites, hoping to release his creative energies, but nothing happened. Profoundly depressed, he returned. He stepped from the train and was rowed across the lake. With the first dipping of the oars into the water, he recalled later, “the theme of the introduction (or rather, its rhythm, its atmosphere) came to me.” From that moment he worked like a man possessed.

The Seventh is a victory symphony, not a personal narrative but a journey from night to day (it is sometimes called Song of the Night). The focus is on nature. If the Seventh is a Romantic symphony, one should add that the “distancing” effect produced by the outward-pointing, non-narrative character of the music can also be perceived as Classical.

The opening is music in which we may hear not only the stroke of oars, but the suggestion of cortege. Here Mahler carries us from a slow introduction into the main body of a sonata-allegro movement, adhering to the design that afforded symphonists from Haydn through Bruckner a broad range of expressive possibilities. Settling into a new key, he brings in a gorgeous theme, a highly inflected violin melody full of yearning and verve, rising to a tremendous climax, to merge into the music of the second of the three marches we have heard. More such merges lie ahead. At the focal point of the development comes what must be the most enchanted minute in all Mahler, a transformation of the second march from focused to veiled, and an ecstatic vision of the glorious lyric theme. A sudden plunge of violins returns us, shockingly, to the slow introduction. The recapitulation has begun. It is tautly compressed. The coda is fierce and abrupt.

The opening of the first of the Nachtmusiken is a minute of preparation and search. The theme that emerges is part march, part song. The Dutch conductor Willem Mengelberg said that this movement had been inspired by Rembrandt’s so-called Night Watch, though the composer Alphons Diepenbrock said that Mahler “cited the painting only as a point of comparison.”

Mahler’s direction for the Scherzo is Schattenhaft, literally “like a shadow” but perhaps better rendered as “spectral.” Notes scurry about, cobwebs brush the face, witches step out in a ghastly parody of a waltz. The Trio is consoling, almost.

The first Nachtmusik was a nocturnal patrol, the second is a serenade that Mahler marks Andante amoroso. Guitar, mandolin, and harp create a magical atmosphere.

After these four night scenes comes the brightness of day, with a thunderous tattoo of drums to waken us. The orchestra proclaims a spirited fanfare whose trills put it on the edge of parody. Few here will fail to be reminded of Die Meistersinger. But what is that about? Mahler uses Die Meistersinger as an easily recognizable symbol for a good-humored victory finale. No part of the harmonic map is untouched, while the rhythms sway in untamed abandon. Then we hear music we have not heard for a long time—the fiery march from the first movement. Or rather, we hear a series of attempts to inject it into the proceedings. Just as we think the attempts have been abandoned, the drums stir everything up again, and the theme enters in glory.

—Michael Steinberg
Michael Steinberg is a contributing writer to the San Francisco Symphony’s program book and author of three Listener’s Guides published by Oxford University Press, The Symphony, The Concerto, and Choral Masterworks, as well as (with Larry Rothe) For the Love of Music.
This note reprinted courtesy of the San Francisco Symphony, copyright © 2005.

Staatskapelle Berlin
Daniel Barenboim, Music Director and Conductor
With almost 450 years of tradition, Staatskapelle Berlin is one of the oldest orchestras in the world. Originally founded in 1570 as a court orchestra by Prince-Elector Joachim II Hector of Brandenburg, and at first solely dedicated to carrying out musical services for the court, the ensemble expanded its activities with the founding of the Royal Court Opera in 1742 by Frederick the Great. Ever since, the orchestra has been closely tied to Staatsoper Unter den Linden.

Many important musicians have conducted the orchestra: Gaspare Spontini, Felix Mendelssohn, Giacomo Meyerbeer, Felix von Weingartner, Richard Strauss, Erich Kleiber, Wilhelm Furtwängler, Herbert von Karajan, Franz Konwitschny, and Otmar Suitner are just a few of the conductors who have decidedly influenced the instrumental and interpretive culture of Staatskapelle Berlin. The works of Richard Wagner—who himself conducted the Königlich Preußische Hofkapelle in 1844 at the premiere of his Flying Dutchman and in 1876 during the preparations for the Berlin premiere of Tristan und Isolde—has represented a pillar of the repertoire of the Staatsoper and its orchestra for some time.

Since 1992, Daniel Barenboim has served as the orchestra’s general music director; in 2000 the orchestra named him “Conductor for Life.” He has led the orchestra throughout Europe, Israel, Japan, and China, as well as North and South America. Performances of Beethoven’s complete symphonies and piano concertos in Vienna, Paris, London, New York, and Tokyo; the symphony cycles of Schumann and Brahms, respectively; and the three-part performance of Wagner’s Ring cycle in Japan are some of the most outstanding events of recent years. As part of the Staatsoper’s Festtage 2007, the symphonies and orchestral songs of Gustav Mahler were performed under the batons of Daniel Barenboim and Pierre Boulez at Berlin’s Philharmonie.

Staatskapelle Berlin was named Orchestra of the Year in 2000, 2004, 2005, 2006, and 2008 by the journal Opernwelt; in 2003 the orchestra was awarded the Furtwängler Prize. A constantly growing number of recordings in both the operatic and symphonic repertoires document the work of the orchestra: The 2002 recording of Beethoven symphonies was awarded the Grand Prix du Disque, the 2003 recording of Wagner’s Tannhäuser was awarded a Grammy, and the 2007 live recording of Mahler’s Ninth Symphony was awarded an Echo Prize.

In the Orchesterakademie, founded in 1997, young musicians gather professional experience in both opera and concert performance, mentored by members of the Staatskapelle. Furthermore, many Staatskapelle musicians volunteer at Musikkindergarten Berlin, an initiative founded by Daniel Barenboim. Staatskapelle members also dedicate themselves to working in chamber music formations, as well as in the ensemble Preußens Hofmusik, focusing on the Berlin music tradition from the 18th century. This rich musical activity can be experienced in several concert series held at the Staatsoper’s Apollo-Saal.

Thomas Hampson, Baritone