# Long Yu’s Songs of the Earth, via Mahler and Xiaogang Ye



## Kiki (Aug 15, 2018)

First of all, I have to admit I am quickly becoming a fan of Long Yu. His Carmina Burana and Rachmaninov Symphonic Dances are excellent. As for this DLVDE, if we ignore the mezzo's contribution, then IMO it is a very good DLVDE.

I really like the tenor Brian Jagde's performance. In "Das Trinklied vom Jammer der Erde", the apparent drunkenness and a poet's exaggeration of emotions about life-and-death is vividly portrayed.

In "Von der Jugend", these are apparently posh, at-a-distance, nature appreciation activities from a group of up-class hipsters. Elegant or sarcastic, it is up to you to decide. Brian Jagde and Long Yu are obviously in the elegance camp. And I think most people will agree with them.

In "Der Trunkene im Frühling", Brian Jagde raised the level of drunkenness to yet another level. This seemingly out-of-control portrait of the poet is depicted with masterful control.

On the other hand, I am not so keen on the mezzo Michelle DeYoung's performance. Her lack of emotion in "Der Einsame im Herbst'' and those straight-faced, even clumsy girls in "Von der Schönheit" are rather anti-intuitive. In "Der Abschied" where the poet is seeing off his friend I did detect a trace of longing emotion, but that is too little too late for me. I also do not enjoy her slow, wobbly vibrato.

On a positive note, in the orchestral interlude in "Der Abschied", Long Yu has got the phrasing and the yearning absolutely right, and he did that naturally with little accentuation and certainly no unnecessary sentimentality. My only problem with Mr. Yu is the tam-tam towards the end of the interlude. Why is it so loud? I do not recall hearing it so loud in any other recording. I wonder what the score says, but regardless of that, I do not think going all out on the tam-tam makes sense. It would make more sense if it resonates in the background (and stir our hearts) to prepare for a natural and smooth transition into the last part of the song.

One of the things that I sometimes find unpleasant in DLVDE is when a performance emphasizes some kind of pseudo-Chineseness. This could become especially apparent in the melody and instrumentation of "Von der Jugend". Incidentally, sometimes I also have a similar complaint against Madama Butterfly, Turandot or Ge Gangru's Fall of Baghdad. These composers might have tried to imitate the sound of a foreign culture, but as they don't really understand that culture, the best they could do was to create something that conforms to a stereotype commonly held within their own culture. And then, to make things worse, there are performances that emphasize and accentuate such stereotypes. I am afraid I often find such performances insincere.

Therefore I was delighted to find minimal emphasis on such stereotypes in this DLVDE. In fact Long Yu talked about how he tried to make it sound Chinese when he first performed it, but he eventually gave up that idea and decided to treat it simply as German lieder. I am glad he did that. Incidentally, in my opinion one of the most successful conductors on record to remove/minimize this pseudoness in DLVDE is Karajan, even though his DLVDE is not particularly Mahlerian.

The recording has the typical DG house sound - squeaky and pushy. It's listenable for sure, I mean, how bad can a 2020 studio recording be? It can't be too bad. It is just not very good.

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It is well known that the text Mahler used is not a direct/accurate translation from the original 8th century Chinese poems. Daniel Ng, a HK businessman and music lover, has set the original poems to Mahler's music, and that has been recorded by BIS with Lan Shui conducting the Singapore Symphony Orchestra. The great thing about it is that the text was sung in Cantonese, with which the pronunciation is deemed similar to the long-lost pronunciation of Classical Chinese of the 8th century. However, the downside is, the music and the original text don't match both rhetorically and emotionally.

In comes Xiaogang Ye's The Song of the Earth, which sets these original poems to his own music. Mr. Ye seems to be a reputable composer and educator (re his bio at Naxos), but I have to confess I have never heard his music. And what fantastic music he has written here to showcase these poems! Sure, this is contemporary music, so, do expect the lovely atonality of contemporary music  ; and it has also got amazing lyricism, not unlike that of Alban Berg.

The musical setting of the first song "Tale of Sorrowful Song" is a tour de force that perfectly captures the poet's philosophy - nothing is more important than alcohol. Sad? Drink! The world is unyielding? Drink. Difficult to hang on to your wealth? Drink! No one can escape death? Drink! This is awesome, isn't it? The soprano Liping Zhang is also awesome here.

In the second song "Banquet at Tao Family's Pavilion", the poem is a pastoral appreciation of a beautiful mansion hidden in a quiet neighbourhood, therefore it might sound strange at first to hear Chinese percussion playing at centre stage in the beginning and at the end. However, the fact is, the poet was invited to a banquet at this mansion, therefore he wrote this poem to suck up to, no, appreciate the host's generosity by praising his mansion. Now the festive/ceremonial-sounding percussion makes perfect sense to set the scene for a formal, up-class banquet.

The third song "Imitation of Old Poem: Long Autumn Night" tells of a poor woman weaving (working) at night while thinking of her loved one, presumably not by her side; and the poem questions you, the wealthy one, what you think of that. The pain and the longing in the music resembles the second song La flûte enchantée from Ravel's Shéhérazade. Subtle stuff this is.

In the fourth song "Song of Pick Lotus" we begin to have some fun in this folk-like setting. While the girls are harvesting lotus in the river, a group of handsome young men appear on their horses, and the girls' animal instincts are awakened, vividly portrayed by the music and the baritone Shenyang; and when the young men race away on their horses, the girls are left with a sad, hollow feeling. Poor souls. But kudos to Ye for the musical imagery and Shenyang for the vivid singing.

The fifth song "Feelings upon Awakening from Drunkenness on a Spring Day" depicts another universal value of drinkers - sad->drink->forget. In the music the manifestation towards the end unashamedly emphasizes how proud the drinker is that he can forget. Again a magnificent performance from Shenyang.

The last song "Staying at Teacher's Mountain Retreat, Awaiting a Friend in Vain" and "Farewell" is another fantastic realisation in music. In the first poem, the anxiety and trepidation while waiting for a friend who has not shown up - the poet obviously has not got his phone with him to whatsapp his friend asking where he is - is vividly portrayed by the music. In the second poem, the soprano's hollow, self-mocking laugh is a great sarcastic touch to depict the determinedness of the poet's friend to leave the city for the country after a failed career. Oh boy, this is not subtle at all, but what fantastic music it is!

Overall, I think Ye's The Song of the Earth is accessible, wears its heart on its sleeve, and is easy to understand. Contemporary music like this is easy to adore.


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