Mahler - Kindertotenlieder - Neumann / Soukupová (1963)

Gustav Mahler – Kindertotenlieder (1904)

00:00 – 1. Nun will die Sonn' so hell aufgeh'n
06:27 – 2. Nun seh' ich wohl, warum so dunkle Flammen
11:49 – 3. Wenn dein Mütterlein
17:14 – 4. Oft denk' ich, sie sind nur ausgegangen
20:32 – 5. In diesem Wetter

Věra Soukupová – mezzo-soprano
Václav Neumann conducting the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra
(1963)

"I often think they have only gone out,
that they will soon return home.
It is a beautiful day, oh do not be afraid.
They have just gone out for a walk."

– Friedrich Rückert – Oft denk' ich, sie sind nur ausgegangen (excerpt)

"Mahler became more human and expansive. He finished the Sixth Symphony and added three more to the two Kindertotenlieder. I found this incomprehensible. I could understand setting such frightful words to music if one had no children, or had lost those one had. Moreover, Friedrich Rückert did not write these harrowing elegies solely out of his imagination: they were dictated by the cruellest loss of his whole life. What I could not understand was bewailing the deaths of children who were in the best of health and spirits hardly an hour after having kissed and fondled them. I exclaimed at the time: For heaven's sake, don't tempt Providence! [...] He loved (his) child beyond measure from the first day. She was christened Maria after his mother, but the happiness of keeping her was denied him and us, and although I recovered, my recovery was very slow. We saw her in all her beauty only to lose her; within a few months she fell ill and lay for long unconscious, between life and death. She was given hot and cold frictions. Mahler carried her about in his arms and was convinced that his voice alone recalled her to life."

– Alma Mahler (excerpt from 'Gustav Mahler: Memories and Letters')

Artwork:
Karl Lessing – Schlesische Landschaft (1841)

[rajheet]

This is a really beautiful recording. Just the opening oboe and horn are worth a listen.