Mahler Bernstein Das Lied von Der Erde

Mahler Bernstein Das Lied von Der Erde blends Music and Documentary elements. Top cast includes Leonard Bernstein, Christa Ludwig, and René Kollo. Relationships and emotional turning points shape the core of the story.

Actor: Leonard Bernstein

For his audio-visual recordings of both Das Lied von der Erde and the songs from Des Knaben Wunderhorn, Leonard Bernstein turned to the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, an ensemble with which he had a decades-long relationship. For this live recording made at the Frederick Mann Auditorium in Tel Aviv of Mahler’s 1908 work – a part symphony, part song cycle setting fin-de-siècle German translations of Chinese poetry – the conductor is joined with two of the greatest singers of the time: tenor René Kollo and mezzo-soprano Christa Ludwig, who features in the final song of the work, “Der Abschied” – a heartbreaking farewell that lasts as long as all five other movements put together.