Die CD „Atlantic Crossings“ des Pariser Orchestre Pasdeloup unter Wolfgang Doerner ist Musik gewidmet, die von europäischen Komponisten geschrieben wurde, die über den Atlantik nach New York gekommen sind oder später vor den Nazis dorthin fliehen mussten. Von Gustav Mahler, der seit 1907 jährlich über den Winter nach New York reiste und dort auftrat, erklingen die „Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen“ mit dem österreichischen Bariton Daniel Schmutzhard, „Das himmlische Leben“ mit der französischen Sopranistin Amel Brahim-Djelloul, sowie die Orchesterstücke „Blumine“ und „Entracte“ (aus „Die drei Pintos“). Erweitert durch das Jazz-Orchester des Perkussionisten Franck Tortiller, folgt Sigmund Rombergs „Lover Come Back to Me“, wiederum mit der Sängerin Amel Brahim-Djelloul; Romberg lebte bereits seit 1909 in New York und hatte sich am Broadway etabliert. In der gleichen Besetzung ist schließlich Kurt Weill zu hören, der Europa 1935 endgültig verlassen musste; von ihm stammen „Berlin im Licht“, der in den frühen dreißiger Jahren in Frankreich entstandene Chanson „Je ne t’aime pas“ sowie der Broadway-Song „That’s Him“ aus dem Jahr 1943.
| Track | Titel | Dauer | Hörprobe |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gustav Mahler - Blumine (aus Sinfonie 1) | 6:54 | |
| Gustav Mahler - Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen | |||
| 2 | I Wenn mein Schatz Hochzeit macht | 4:31 | |
| 3 | II Ging heut’ Morgen über’s Feld | 4:12 | |
| 4 | III Ich hab’ ein glühend’ Messer | 3:22 | |
| 5 | IV Die zwei blauen Augen von meinem Schatz | 6:21 | |
| 6 | Das himmlische Leben (aus Des Knaben Wunderhorn) | 9:32 | |
| Die drei Pintos (C. M. v. Weber / G. Mahler) | |||
| 7 | Entracte | 6:31 | |
| 8 | Sigmund Romberg - Lover, Come Back to Me | 7:51 | |
| Kurt Weill | |||
| 9 | Berlin im Licht | 4:06 | |
| 10 | Je ne t’aime pas | 5:46 | |
| 11 | That’s Him | 6:28 | |
Online Merker - Die internationale Kulturplattform
25.01.2023
On 9.12.1907 Mahler made his first Atlantic crossing from Cherbourg to New York. He wanted to rekindle his career there after a certain fatigue in Vienna, which he succeeded in doing as head of the Met and chief conductor of the New York Philharmonic. At that time, New York had 5 million inhabitants, 500,000 of whom came from Germany or Austria. Later there is this touching photo of Gustav Mahler's last crossing to New York in November 1910. The composer at the railing with tired features. Seethaler wrote his short novel "Der letzte Satz" about the very last journey, where Gustav Mahler returns to Vienna terminally ill after his last concert in New York, where he dies on 18.11.1911. The picture of Gustav Klimt's portrait Adele Bloch-Bauer also began her journey across the Atlantic after restitution proceedings, in February 2006, almost exactly 100 years after Mahler. It went to Ronald Lauder in an auction for 135 million US$ and can be seen today in the Neue Galerie in Manhattan. After the dedication of the programme managers, the album is all about the fate of this golden picture, which also adorns the cover of the CD.
The deeper background for the program of the CD "Atlantic Crossings" is the fate of three emigrants to the USA. It was Austrian and German composers who went to New York for economic, artistic or political reasons, where they achieved some of their immense successes on the great concert stages, at the Metropolitan Opera and on Broadway: Gustav Mahler, Sigmund Romberg and Kurt Weill.
Gustav Mahler, a New Yorker by choice, is represented with "Blumine", which was drafted as the second (Andante) movement of the five-movement first version of the 1st Symphony (later the simple movement was omitted after the symphony was reduced to four movements), the "Songs of a Journeyman" and Mahler's arrangement of the interlude after the first act of Carl Maria von Weber's humorous opera in three acts "The Three Pintos". Mahler wrote his first song cycle "Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen" in 1885 during his time in Kassel. With the Wunderhorn motifs, the cycle also served as inspiration for the First Symphony. Of course, the instrumentally sometimes highly dramatic songs about the fate of an unhappily loving young man fit well with the colorful cosmos of the emigrants and the feeling of being exposed. Mahler must have felt this way when, as a 24-year-old, he spent a catastrophic New Year's Eve (1884) with the adored Johanna Richter, soprano at the Kassler Hoftheater, unable to communicate his emotions and reveal himself. The ocean cruiser may also stand as a metaphor for a "transitional space, for a corridor that connects an old life with a new one."
Artistic sublimation through music: memory, anger and resignation in farewell are the ingredients of the journeyman's emotional state. The Austrian baritone Daniel Schmutzhard, together with the extremely eloquent Orchestre Pasdeloup, conducted by Wolfgang Doerner, with whom it has a noticeable 30-year harmonious collaboration, presents a vivid al fresco portrait of the soul of the lad. In this down-to-earth reading, rural primary colours, astonishment and simplicity in the lecture predominate over highly artificial illumination of all dynamic values, as we know by Fischer-Dieskau or Thomas Hampson. Both approaches are legitimate, both will find their supporters. In addition, the soprano solo from Mahler's Fourth Symphony of the last movement "Das himmlische Leben", sweetened by Brahim-Djelloul's bell-shimmering singing, can be heard. The way she chirps of bread-baking angels, bowls full of asparagus and beans, apples, pears and grapes, eleven thousand dancing virgins, is full of wit and cheeky grace. Because we know: "Cäcilia and her musicians are excellent court musicians. The English voices encourage the senses to awaken everything for joy."
The main interest of the album, however, is – thanks to the soprano Amel Brahim-Djelloul, who is also exceptionally successful in the "lighter" subject in contrast to other opera singers – the song 'Lover, come back to me' by Sigmund Romberg from his operetta "The new Moon" and the following three songs written by Kurt Weill: "Berlin im Licht", "Je ne t'aime pas" and "That's him" from the musical "One Touch of Venus" in 1943. The play was performed 567 times on Broadway.
Sigmund Romberg arrived in New York in 1909 and soon gained a foothold on Broadway. His song "Lover come back to me" was later recorded by Barbara Streisand and became world famous.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
Kurt Weill had to turn his back on Europe in 1935 as a composer persecuted by the Nazi regime. In the 1940s he was a star on Broadway in New York, in 1943 he became a US citizen. His songs recorded here come from very different creative periods. Particularly entertaining and cheeky is the 1928 song "Berlin im Licht", which sets a musical monument to the then so advanced electric street lighting. This "Na wat denn, na wat denn, was ist das für 'ne Stadt denn?" is a slow fox commissioned by the Berliner Festwochen. During the Paris years 1933 to 1935, Weill was fascinated by French chanson. It is astonishing how his love song "Je ne t'aime pas" is quintessentially Parisian: seductive, interspersed with mood swings and hurt resignation. Berlin-Paris-New York: The sensational jazz arrangements of Romberg and Weill's hits are by Franck Tortiller, Jean Gobinet and Angelo Petronio. The Orchestre Pasdeloup, reinforced by the Orchestre Jazz Franck Tortiller, tears moodily through the big city rhythms, tells us about the "American Dream", even when it comes to Berlin street light or Parisian lovesickness. Amel Brahim-Djelloul, reminiscent of one of the best lyrical voices of all time, Lucia Popp, in terms of timbre and phrasing, is completely absorbed in the complex world of exile songs. She masters all three languages inside out and is exactly the right person in her musical curiosity and vocal splendour – she also sings music from the Arabic-Andalusian region – to give the album the unique pep that ennobles the dignified to the extraordinary.
- Dr. Ingobert Waltenberger