Mahler 's Resurrection Symphony 2 by M. Jansons
- IV
In English
- Primeval Light
- O red rose!
- Man lies in greatest need!
- Man lies in greatest pain!
- How I would rather be in heaven.
- There came I upon a broad path
- when came a little angel and wanted to turn me away.
- Ah no! I would not let myself be turned away!
- I am from God and shall return to God!
- The loving God will grant me a little light,
- Which will light me into that eternal blissful life!
- —From Des Knaben Wunderhorn
Mahler initially devised a narrative programme (actually several variant versions) for the work, which he shared with a number of friends (including Natalie Bauer-Lechner and Max Marschalk). He even had one of these versions printed in the program book at the premiere in Dresden on 20 December 1901.
In this programme, the first movement represents a funeral and asks questions such as "Is there life after death?";
the second movement is a remembrance of happy times in the life of the deceased;
the third movement represents a view of life as meaningless activity;
the fourth movement is a wish for release from life without meaning;
and the fifth movement – after a return of the doubts of the third movement and the questions of the first – ends with a fervent hope for everlasting, transcendent renewal, a theme that Mahler would ultimately transfigure into the music of his Das Lied von der Erde.[4] As generally happened, Mahler later withdrew all versions of the programme from circulation.
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