Gustav Mahler: Ablösung Im Sommer

Written by Michael Barrett

Associate Artistic Director, NYFOS

In category: Song of the Day

Published August 3, 2017

Summer is usually the time when love has the greatest opportunity to bloom. The soft evenings, the lingering twilight, the wonderful cuisine—fresh produce of every kind—all add up to an awakening of the senses. The collection of German folk poetry Des Knaben Wunderhorn is full of parables about war, love, betrayal, and fidelity. “Ablösung Im Sommer” is one of these.

The Cuckoo bird has fallen to his death at the end of spring. The Cuckoo is the traditional symbol of betrayal. Cuckoo announces the birth of a new cuckold, someone whose love has been untrue. “Who shall sing to us all summer long?” asks the song. The answer of course is the Nighingale, whose florid and expansive song represents the promise and anticipation of new love and all its delights. Here is that song as set by Gustav Mahler performed by my two heroes, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Leonard Bernstein at the piano. They totally understand the clipped, curt, unfeeling music of the the Cuckoo and then give into to rapturous beauty of the Nightingale’s music.

https://youtu.be/ftWRM70idJQ

select author’s name to read all of their posts

Michael Barrett is the co-founder and associate artistic director of New York Festival of Song, as well as the co-founder and music director of the Moab Music Festival in Utah. A conductor and a pianist, Michael was a protégé of Leonard Bernstein and serves as music advisor to the Leonard Bernstein Estate.

0 Comments

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *