Uncharacteristically Upbeat

In my haphazard trek along the shelves of my collection, we now arrive at the final Mahler symphony to be considered which happens to be No 4 in a recording by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra conducted by Riccardo Chailly. The most upbeat of Mahler's symphonies, it is probably also the one most connected to the Wunderhorn settings that were such an important part of his work. There is a pastoral feel to much of the music, without too many of the dark shadows that threaten any idyllic passages in many of the other symphonies. The virtuosic solo violin part is played by Alexander Kerr. The concluding song in the fourth movement is an ecstatic childlike depiction of heaven and is given luxury casting here as sung by soprano Barbara Bonney. There is an additional work to fill out the disk which also features Bonney singing Seven Early Songs by Berg. There is a Mahlerian influence to these song orchestrations but they also contain early indications of the move away from strict tonality. They are settings of Germanic verse from the 19th and early 20th century, names that I am not erudite enough to recognise apart from Rilke but receiving fine performances here.