Sunday Afternoon at the Opera - Mahler: Symphony No. 2, "Resurrection"; Martinu: Juliette, "Fragments"

Sunday Afternoon at the Opera host Keith Brown writes:

From the year 2006 onwards I have been in the habit of programming the Mahler song cycles and symphonies around the time of the Summer solstice. You've heard all the song cycles: Das Lied von der Erde, Kindertotenlieder, Rueckert Lieder, Des Knaben Wunderhorn, Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, and Das Klagende Lied--in both their orchestrated and piano versions.

You also got to hear Mahler symphonies that have significant writing for solo singers and chorus. I've broadcast the Symphony No. 8, the gargantuan "Symphony of A Thousand", twice before. Mahler's Symphony No. 2 (1894) I have broadcast once before on Sunday, June 26, 2011. Even his symphonies have an operatic quality; they are really symphonic cantatas. (Remember, Gustav Mahler was primarily an opera conductor. He conducted at the Met in New York City in his later career.) Mahler's "Resurrection" Symphony No. 2 in C Minor sets a text drawn from the 18th century German poet Friedrich Klopstock's Resurrection Ode. ( The composer himself, however, never designated it as having anything to do with resurrection.)

The British conductor Sir Simon Rattle directed the Berlin Philharmonic and Berlin Radio Chorus in an EMI recording of the Mahler Second made live in performance in 2010 in Berlin's Philharmonie concert hall. Heard in solo capacity are the English soprano Kate Royal and the Czech mezzo Magdalena Kozena. This is Rattle's second recording of Mahler's second symphony for EMI. For him it has become a signature showpiece of his conducting style. Writing for Fanfare magazine (July/August,2011) reviewer Christopher Abbot says the new EMI Classics issue equals or surpasses Rattle's 1986 interpretation, which was intensely dramatic. Abbot gives the 2010 recording his very highest recommendation, and the EMI sonics he calls,"...the most impressive stereo recording that I've heard in some time."

Recognizing that some listeners won't be satisfied until they hear some actual opera, I have an additional aural feature: three 'fragments," which are actually extended excerpts from the 20th century Czech composer Bohuslav Martinu's dream opera Juliette (1938),with Magdalena Kozena in the title role. These fragments come along with the orchestral suite from Juliette on a 2008 Supraphon compact disc release. Sir Charles Mackerras conducts the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. I have broadcast the complete Juliette opera twice before, in 1986 on Supraphon LPs (back when it was the Czechoslovak state record label) and again in 2004 in CD reissue.