program - SVIZ

song ‘I Went This Morning Over the Field’ from the cycle Songs of a Wayfarer.
This section reaches a typical climax (or ‘eruption’, as T.W. Adorno would say)
shortly before the end. The second movement is a vigorous ländler, a waltzlike
dance, followed by a dryly ironic funeral march, which the composer
apparently conceived ‘in the style of Callot’. Mahler aimed for a picture in
which a hunter is brought to his final rest by the animals that he had previously
persecuted. Even the opening is unusual with its solo contrabassoon,
after which a long canon develops in which we recognise the famous song
‘Frère Jacques’ in the Minor. The canon is soon joined by tunes reminiscent
of the playing of some out of tune local wind band. A shift from the ironic
is provided by the gentle central section, which is taken from another of
the songs from the cycle Songs of a Wayfarer (‘The Two Blue Eyes of My Beloved’).
The extensive finale is conceived as a kind of ‘journey’ from hell to
heaven: the wild dramatic music first defers to a lyrically withdrawn song,
only to return again, this time together with allusions to motives from the
first movement, until finally the heroic theme prevails – a series of fourths,
this time set in the Major.
PROGRAM / PROGRAM
Gregor Pompe
Prevod / Translation: Neville Hall
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