Ensemble Progetto Pierrot & Federica Napoletani - Mahler: The Wunderhorn World

Schönberg was, like Mahler, sensitive to the relationship between music and concert halls, and during my research I discovered that Mahler was particularly engaged with the chamber music aspect of his own Lieder from the Wunderhorn collection. By working together with the ensemble I realized that, by transcribing Mahler's Lieder for the 'Pierrot' ensemble, I would avoid the risk of merely producing an imitation of the original. At certain points there even emerges a play of refractions between the orchestral version and that for piano, both originally by Mahler. In an equally natural way I decided to broaden my perspective to what came before and after: that stream carried what the research examined, namely the continuity between the Austrian musical tradition and Mahler, which made it verifiable for the listener through direct osmosis. In Mahler's time it was customary to find an ensemble performing orchestral and opera pieces in the pavilion of a spa resort or at the tables of an outdoor café: all this was part of the soundscape and was a precious opportunity to listen in a world without radio, records or internet. It is well known that there is a continuity from Mahler to Berg, but I believe that the spatio-temporal leap that is made here between a Mahler symphony and a Berg Lied, united by the same spirit of dance, makes it tangible (track 11-12), just as the similarity between the beginning of Rheinlegendchen and Schilflied: both unfold from a single note, and the beginning of Schilflied seems a slow-motion version of that of Rheinlegendchen, which in turn recalls the beginning of many sections of the Strauss family waltzes. With this perspective I was compelled to include certain episodes from the first four symphonies which are known to engage in dialogue with the world of the lied, and which appear here almost crosswise, using points which, as pivots, enabled me to step from one piece to another. The osmosis between lied and symphony begins already with Symphony No. 1 and continues with the reuse of lieder from the Wunderhorn in Symphonies No. 2, 3 and 4: a practice which is represented here by part No. 3 of Symphony No. 3, the instrumental version of Ablösung im Sommer, and by the Sermon of Saint Anthony and Urlicht, which migrated to Symphony No. 2 (the Sermon becomes an instrumental Scherzo in translation). This project was gradually enriched with new discoveries of thematic references between the pieces, many of which had not yet been identified in Mahler scholarship: some are highlighted here by direct juxtaposition, as in Blicke mir and Das irdische Leben (track 2-3) - but a fragment of Blicke mir will resurface to demonstrate a further kinship with Symphony No. 3 (track 13, 1'49) - or between Wo die schönen Trompeten blasen and Wer hat dies Liedel erdacht? Immediately after we find yet another thematic reference between Wer hat dies Liedel erdacht? This osmosis led me to create a specific version of Schubert's Romance: from the extreme suspension of the fragment from Symphony No. 1 (track 5) emerges only the unaccompanied voice, which intones the beginning of the Romance, almost a song emerging from afar, from silence - according to fundamental modes in Mahlerian poetics - attempting to answer the questions of the symphonic fragment that precedes it.