MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde [The Song of the Earth]

Written after the Eighth Symphony, Mahler subtitled this work 'A Symphony for Tenor, Contralto (or Baritone) and Large Orchestra' to avoid naming it his Ninth Symphony. He was always overly concerned with his own mortality and convinced himself that a ninth symphony would be his last. In fact he did go on to write a Symphony No.9 and this did, indeed, prove to be his last, a tenth remained unfinished.

The text for Das Lied von der Erde was taken from a collection of Chinese poems that had been translated first into French and then into German by Hans Bethge. The themes of earthly beauty and the transience of life greatly appealed to Mahler and this work is one of his finest achievements.

Rattle here chooses to use two male voices instead of the customary tenor/contralto combination, and Peter Seiffert and Thomas Hampson are both sympathetic to Rattle's vision of the piece. Gramophone wrote, at the time of the first release: "It's the feeling that throughout this extraordinary setting so much is suggested because so much is left out. Simple music of vast ambiguity. Rattle respects that."