| The Virtual Philharmonic Orchestra (VPO) | Music Albums |
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Gustav Mahler (1860-1911):"From the Life of a Lonely One"Also known as Symphony No.1, D major |
| This album was released on 7.July 2010, to commemorate the 150th birthday of Gustav Mahler. |
Content of Music Album: |
If you have a Windows Media plugin, the music will begin to play automatically, playing the complete symphony with all its parts. If you do not have this plugin, you can download the playlist, save it to your computer, and play it from there.
This music album was created to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Gustav Mahler's birthday. The album consists of my renditions of Gustav Mahler's Symphony No 1, which I created from instrumental samples on my PC. In the layout below I follow the original 5-part structure in which this work was presented to the public in its first few performances between 1889 and 1896. After then, the formerly 2nd movement ("Blumine") has been dropped, and most performances of this symphony nowadays just contain 4 movements. The original structure is as shown below. The movements except "Blumine" ("Flowerine") are in their revisions from 1899.
Part I: From the days of youth, "youth, fruit, and thorn pieces" | |||
| 1. |  |
"Spring and no end." This introduction describes the awakening of nature at the earliest dawn. A significant part of the music is quoting "I went this morning over the field" ("Ging heut morgen übers Feld") from "Songs of a Wayfarer". | [13:45] |
| 2. | |
"Flowerine." (Blumine) This movement had been removed from the Symphony in 1896 and was rediscovered in 1966. "Blume" = flower, "Blumine" = flowerine. "Blumine" was supposedly the nick name of Gustav Mahler's love interest Johanna Richter, a blonde soprano at the Theatre in Cassel. | [5:11] |
| 3. | | "Ahead with full power." This Scherzo / Ländler had the original title "Set with full sails" (Mit vollen Segeln) - but who nowadays can relate to sail boats except those few who own one? |
[7:26] |
Part II: Commedia umana | |||
| 4. | | "Stranded." Following a theme from the "Hunter's Funeral" woodcut by Moritz von Schwind (1850). This movement encompasses the catholic canon "Frère Jacques" and a parody of jewish Klenzmer-wedding music, surrounding a dreamy middle part which is a direct quotation of the song "The two blue eyes of my beloved" - "Die zwei blauen Augen von Meinem Schatz" from the "Songs of a Wayfarer". |
[8:40] |
| 5. | |
"Dall'inferno al Paradiso" This title says it all - a sudden expression of a deeply wounded heart, but optimistically triumphing in the end. |
[17:05] |
These renditions were created on a Personal Computer using digital instrumental samples (Garritan Personal Orchestra 4) and Sonar 8.52. The recording/rendering system is MAESTRO-2, running Windows7, 64bit. There are more details about this Symphony and this recording, together with a list of my previously recorded versions (rehearsals).
About the graphics art work:
In this cover graphics for the CD my goal was to capture and represent the
mood of the symphony as well as Gustav's personal background during the
composition of this work from 1884-1888.
It contains the strong contradictions which run
through this composition, changing from happy mood to deeply rumbling emotions.
The top image is a wood cut by Moritz von Schwind (1804-1871):
"Wie die Thiere den Jäger begraben" (how the animals bury the hunter),
from 1850.
This wood cut was the actual inspiration for the second-to-last movement
in Gustav Mahler's Symphony No.1, "Hunter's Funeral" (or "Stranded").
The main background image in the graphics is
Vincent van Gogh's (1853-1890) "The Harvest" from 1888.
I chose this image because its creation corresponds
to the time period of when this symphony was composed,
and because of its optimistic depiction of sunny bucolic countryside,
which appears as an eminent concept in the first half of the symphony.
This positive cheerful mood is contrasted by the dark thunderstorm sky, which
represents the overall thunder on the last movement.
The two female shapes represent the two women with whom Gustav
was in love around the composition of this symphony:
the blonde blue-eyed soprano Johanna Richter (1884) who
is said to have inspired
the "Songs of a Wayfarer" (of which several themes went into this symphony)
had rejected Gustav's marriage proposal around Christmas 1884.
Marion von Weber (1888),
the wife of the grandson of Carl Maria von Weber with whom Gustav was working on the completion of the opera
"The Three Pintos", bailed out of eloping with Gustav and left him alone.
The blue eyes in the graphics stand for the unfulfilled desire,
which must have been in Gustav's head (heart) during the
composition of this work, while the emotional impact of these
love stories has found its expression
in this symphony.
Since May 2011 this album is also available for purchase online at CD BABY. Furthermore it will be available on Amazon, iTunes, and most other online music
distributors.
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