Sunday afternoon sees another concert in the Mahler Odyssey series being staged by the National Symphony Orchestra (NSO). It’s being conducted by former Taipei Symphony Orchestra maestro Felix Chiu-sen Chen (陳秋盛), who returned to his old orchestra to lead its production of Verdi’s opera Rigoletto in September.
Sunday’s concert features Mahler’s song cycle Des Knaben Wunderhorn (The Youth’s Magic Horn), completed in 1901. The title refers to a 19th-century book of German folk songs, many freely adapted, and the young Mahler orchestrated 13 of them over more than a decade. Some are for soprano and others for baritone voice. Some of them combine male and female speech, but are usually nonetheless given entire to one or other of the singers. Whether or not some songs will be shared by both soloists on Sunday remains to be seen.
The only other item on the program is Schumann’s Fourth Symphony in a version Mahler made in 1900 when he was working as a conductor in Vienna. He apparently didn’t change much, and you get the feeling the only reason the item is being offered at all is because Mahler is a much bigger draw than Schumann these days. Regardless, it’s so nice to see Chen in any context that it would be a pleasure to attend this event whatever the program.
PHOTO COURTESY OF MARCO BORGGREVE
Patrons wanting to listen to these two items in advance might consider the 1999 recording of the Knaben Wunderhorn songs by Anne Sofie von Otter and Thomas Quasthoff with the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Claudio Abbado, and the 2007 recording of the two Schumann symphonies that Mahler revised, in his versions, by the Gewandhaus Orchestra of Leipzig under Riccardo Chailly.
The soloists in the Mahler work are Christiane Iven and Konstantin Wolff (not Michael Nagy as originally announced). A Munich critic wrote of the Stuttgart-based Iven that her “beautiful, powerful and richly-colored voice” possessed a youthful radiance while simultaneously revealing dramatic potential. She’s performed with both Quasthoff and Chailly, while Wolff has sung for both Chailly and Abbado.
The NSO concert is on Sunday at Taipei’s National Concert Hall, starting at 2.30pm. Tickets are from NT$400 to NT$1,500. For reservations visit www.artsticket.com.tw or call (02) 3393-9888.
PHOTO COURTESY OF NSO
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