Vladimir Ashkenazy conducts Mahler & Schoenberg

Release Date: 1st Nov 2010
Catalogue No: ELQ4803479
Label: Eloquence
Length: 2 hours 19 minutes

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Schoenberg: Pelleas und Melisande, Op. 5

Work length41:33

Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin
Vladimir Ashkenazy
Recorded: 1996-01
Recording Venue: Jesus-Christus-Kirche, Berlin

Mahler: Symphony No. 3

Work length1:37:36

Iris Vermillion (mezzo-soprano)
Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Frauenchor Des Rundfunkchores Berlin, Staats- und Domchor Berlin, Knabenchor an der Hochschule der Künste Berlin
Vladimir Ashkenazy
Recorded: 1995-06
Recording Venue: Konzerthaus Schauspielehaus, Berlin

1. Kräftig. Entscheiden

Track length33:24

2. Tempo di minuetto. Sehr mäßig

Track length9:53

3. Comodo. Scherzando. Ohne Hast

Track length18:12

4. Sehr langsam. Misterioso: "O Mensch! Gib acht!" 'O Mensch! Gib acht'

Track length9:49

5. Lustig im Tempo und keck im Ausdruck: "Bimm Bamm. Es sungen drei Engel"

Track length4:11

6. Langsam. Ruhevoll. Empfunden (Lento. Tranquillo. Sentito)

Track length22:07

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Recording locations: Jesus Christus Kirche, Berlin, Germany, January 1996 (Schoenberg); Konzerthaus Schauspielhaus, Berlin, Germany, June/August 1995 (Mahler)

Two gargantuan late-Romantic Austrian works are coupled on this very rare recording by Vladimir Ashkenazy and the Deutsches Sinfonie-Orchester Berlin. The recording had limited release in Germany and this is its first international release.

Mahler’s Third Symphony is the longest symphony by any composer to be part of the basic repertoire and, at first, had subtitles attached to each of the movements. But the composer had a distrust for programmatic music and by the time the symphony was published and premiered, these verbal explications had been removed.

Mahler and Schoenberg met in 1904 at a rehearsal of Schoenberg’s string sextet Verklärte Nacht. The older composer became a defender of Schoenberg’s work, conducting it when he could. Schoenberg, whose outlook on Mahler’s work was at first unfavourable, was bowled over by the Third Symphony and regarded it as a work of genius. His own Pelleas und Melisande based on Maurice Maeterlinck's play, is a gargantuan symphonic poem and was his first completed orchestral work. The orchestral forces (as with the Mahler Symphony) are huge, and although Schoenberg includes no vocal parts, the orchestra is handled with considerable bravura and includes 64 strings (plus two harps), 17 woodwinds, 18 brass and 8 percussion.

Vladimir Ashkenazy conducts Mahler & Schoenberg

2 CDs

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