NZSO presents two great symphonic works

Mahler, Symphony No. 4 and Strauss, Four Last Songs
New Zealand Symphony Orchestra
Eddo de Waart, Conductor
Christiane Libor, Soprano
Hamilton, August 4; Auckland, August 5; Wellington, August 6

NZSO music director Edo de Waart is to conduct two of the great symphonic works that expose the psychological depths of their composers – Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 and Strauss’ Four Last Songs. 

He says of the two works, “I haven’t conducted some of these works for a long time, so it’s nice to revisit my old friends. These composers had the extraordinary ability to be unbelievably mature in their view of what music was and what life was all about, just like Michelangelo and da Vinci and Shakespeare”

Richard Strauss was 84 when he composed his final work, Four Last Songs, and despite his "retirement" in 1941, he spent much of his final years writing some of his most moving music. Composed after World War II in 1948, Four Last Songs is a meditation on the beautiful moments that life can offer, including the brilliance of love.

Inspired by Joseph Eichendorff’s poem Im Abendrot, which the composer read in 1947, it describes a couple who have walked through life together and now face their own death. The work could be a reflection of Strauss and his wife Pauline’s life, who, despite spending 50 years together in a rather tumultuous marriage, remained deeply in love.

Neither Strauss nor Pauline heard the songs performed. Richard Strauss died in his sleep on  September 8, 1949 and Pauline died on May 13, 1950, only nine days before Four Last Songs premiered at the Royal Albert Hall in London.

Soprano Christiane Libor makes her debut with the NZSO in these moving orchestral songs. Born in Berlin, she studied at the Musikhochschule für Musik Hans Eissler and she has worked with many of the world’s most respected conductors. She has sung a wide range of leading dramatic soprano parts including the title role of Ariadne auf Naxos at Seattle Opera and Opera Stuttgart, and she has sung both Sieglinde and Brünnhilde in Die Walküre with Oper Leipzig.

Ms Libor will also sing in the other concert masterwork, Mahler’s Symphony No. 4, the ideal continuation from Maestro de Waart’s acclaimed inaugural performance as the NZSO Music Director of Mahler’s momentous Third Symphony in April.

In many ways, Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 must have been a baffling follow up from his Symphony No. 3 when it premiered as these two symphonies appear to be opposites. Symphony No. 3 (composed between 1893 and 1896) is huge, with music scored for children’s choir, women’s choir, mezzo-soprano soloist and a full orchestra, whereas Symphony No. 4 (composed in 1899 and 1900) is scored for a modest orchestra, with no trombones or tuba, and a soprano soloist.

Despite the obvious differences, Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 deeply informs the Fourth. Mahler was an expert at re-purposing themes across his works and this is evident in these consecutive symphonies. “If you want to call yourself a Mahler orchestra, then his Symphony No. 4 is very much at the centre of that,” Maestro de Waart says.

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