Mahler at Pacific
University Symphony Orchestra and select high school students
Nicolas Waldvogel, conductor Virginia Kelsey, mezzo-soprano
Blumine (1884)
Four Songs
Die stille Stadt (1911) Hymne (1924) Licht in der Nacht (1915) Lobgesang (1924) Virginia Kelsey, mezzo-soprano Pause
Gustav Mahler (1860–1911) Alma Mahler (1879–1964) orch. Nicolas Waldvogel
Totenfeier (1888)
Gustav MahlerDie
stille Stadt
Liegt eine Stadt im Tale, ein blasser Tag vergeht. es wird nicht lang mehr dauern, bis weder Mond noch Sterne nur Nacht am Himmel steht.
Von allen Bergen drücken Nebel auf die Stadt, es dringt kein Dach, noch Hof noch Haus, kein Laut aus ihrem Rauch heraus, kaum Türme noch und Brükken.
Doch als dem Wandrer graute, da ging ein Lichtlein auf im Grund und aus dem Rauch und Nebel begann ein Lobgesang aus Kindermund.
Richard Fedor Leopold Dehmel
The Silent Town
A town lies in a valley, a pale day is finishing; it will not be long before neither moon nor stars, but night alone in the sky.
From every mountain mists descend on the town; no roof, no courtyard, no house no sound can penetrate the smoke, neither towers nor bridges.
But as the traveler shivered, a light appeared in the valley; and through the smoke and mist came a faint song of praise from a child’s lips.
Hymne
Wenige wissen das Geheimnis der Liebe, Fühlen Unersättlichkeit und ewigen Durst Des Abendmahls göttliche Bedeutung
Ist den irdischen Sinnen Rätsel; Aber wer jemals Von heissen, geliebten Lippen Atem des Lebens sog, Wem heilige Glut In zitternde Wellen das Herz schmolz, Wem das Auge aufging, Dass er des Himmels Unergründliche Tiefe mass, Wird essen von seinem Leibe Und trinken von seinem Blute ewiglich.
Wer hat des irdischen Leibes Hohen Sinn erraten? Wer kann sagen, Dass er das Blut versteht?
Einst ist alles Leib, ein Leib,
Hymns
Few know the secret of love, feel its unquenchable eternal thirst.
The godly meaning of the last supper remains a secret to us mere mortals; but whoever tasted, from hot, beloved lips, the breath of life who holy scorching waves tremblingly melted the heart, who with suddenly seeing eyes, got a sense of heaven’s immeasurable depth will eat from his body will drink from his blood forever.
Who has felt the essential meaning of our earthly flesh? Who can tell, that he understands the blood? Once all is flesh, one flesh,
In himmlischem Blute Schwimmt das selige Paar.
O! dass das Weltmeer Schon erröthete, Und in duftiges Fleisch Aufquelle der Fels! Nie endet das süsse Mahl, Nie sättigt die Liebe sich. Nicht innig, nicht eigen genug Kann sie haben den Geliebten. Von immer zärteren Lippen Verwandelt wird das Genossene Inniglicher und näher. Heissere Wollust Durchbebt die Seele, Durstiger und hungriger Wird das Herz: Und so der Liebe Genuss Von Ewigkeit zu Ewigkeit. Friedrich von Hardenberg, as Novalis
Licht in der Nacht Ringsum dunkle Nacht, Hüllt in Schwarz mich ein. Zage flimmert gelb Fern her ein Stern!
Ist als wie ein Trost, Eine Stimme still, Die dein Herz aufruft, Das verzagen will.
Kleines gelbes Licht, Bist mir wie der Stern Überm Hause einst Jesu Christ, des Herrn. Und da löscht es aus! Und die Nacht wird schwer! Schlafe, Herz! Du hörst keine Stimme mehr!
Otto Julius Bierbaum
in heavenly blood floats the blessed couple.
O! That the ocean would turn read already and in fragrant skin would upwell the rock! never would end the sweet pleasure, never be saturated the love; not close enough, not intimate enough can she have the beloved.
By ever more tender lips the relished will grow more and more to the heart. Hotter lust trembles through the soul, more thirsty and hungry becomes the heart: and so persists love’s pleasure From eternity to eternity.
Light in the Night Deep night all around envelops me in black. A hesitant yellow star shimmers from afar.
It is as though bringing relief, a tranquil voice which will call your heart, when in despair.
Little yellow light, For me you are like the star That once shone above the house Of Lord Jesus Christ.
And now it is extinguished! And the night becomes heavy! Sleep, my heart! You will not hear that voice again!
Please turn the page quietly.
Lobgesang
Wie das Meer ist die Liebe: unerschöpflich, unergründlich, unermesslich:
Woge zu Woge stürzend gehoben, woge zu Woge wachsend verschlungen, sturm- und wetter-gewaltig nun, sonneselig nun, willig nun dem Mond die unaufhaltsame Fläche.
Doch in der Tiefe stetes Wirken ewige Ruhe, ungestört, unentwirrbar dem irdischen Blick, starr verdämmernd in gläsernes Dunkel und in der Weite stetes Schweben ewiger Regung, ungestillt unabsehbar dem irdischen Blick, mild verschwimmend im Licht der Lüfte:
Aufklang der Unendlichkeit ist das Meer, ist die Liebe. Richard Fedor Leopold Dehmel
Song of Praise
Akin to the ocean is love, inexhaustible, unfathomable, unending
Wave to wave, surging and falling, wave to wave, growing and sinking, now powered by storm and weather, now blessed by the sun, now by the moon the interminable expanse.
Yet in the deep there is an eternal peace, undisturbed, inaccessible to terrestrial sight, motionless, condemned to glassy darkness. And hovering in the distance an eternal movement, untouched, inscrutable to terrestrial sight, gently blurred in the light of the sky;
An echo of infinity Is the ocean, is love.
Nicolas Waldvogel conducts the University Symphony Orchestra and has taught conducting and music history at the University of the Pacific Conservatory of Music since 2001. He has guest-conducted the Orchestra de la Suisse Romande (Switzerland) and the State Philharmonic “Dinu Lipatti” (Romania). He was a conducting fellow at the Tanglewood Festival, where he studied with Gustav Meier, Seiji Ozawa, and John Nelson. He also assisted Horst Stein in a production of Wagner’s Der Ring der Nibelungen at the Deutsche Oper, in Berlin.
Waldvogel has performed with Yo-Yo Ma, Anonymous 4, and Alan Gilbert. His recent credits include a performance of Ives’s immense Fourth Symphony, Verdi’s La traviata, Mozart’s Così fan tutte, Richard Einhorn’s Voices of Light, Bruckner’s Ninth Symphony, and the complete symphonies by Jean Sibelius. He also contributed to the “Symphony” article for Oxford Bibliographies Online. Waldvogel holds both Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees in music from Harvard University, a Master of Music degree in conducting and a graduate performance diploma in conducting from the Peabody Institute, and a Ph.D. in music history from Yale University. His primary conducting teacher was Frederik Prausnitz.
Mezzo-soprano Virginia Warnken Kelsey recently joined the voice faculty of the University of the Pacific’s Conservatory of Music. Internationally celebrated for her heartfelt and dynamic interpretations of Baroque opera, oratorio, and contemporary chamber music, she maintains an active career in an adventurous assortment of musical and artistic settings.
Virginia is an original member of the Grammy Award–winning vocal ensemble Roomful of Teeth, an alternative-classical vocal band dedicated to reimagining the expressive potential of the human voice. Lauded by the New Yorker, NPR, and the New York Times, Virginia has been featured alongside Roomful of Teeth with the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Seattle Symphony, BBC Symphony, and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. Virginia has worked alongside celebrated opera director Peter Sellars in numerous performances of Claude Vivier’s Kopernikus, which she has performed in several countries spanning the globe. A lover of nonclassical and post-genre music, Virginia has also appeared alongside Questlove
