Ellen Williams and Tim Sparks - Concert Program

Mezzo-soprano Ellen Williams and tenor Tim Sparks gave a wonderful program yesterday afternoon at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church. Accompanied by a 13-piece orchestra under the baton of Scott Tilley, Williams and Sparks presented the Schönberg orchestration of Gustav Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde (The Song of the Earth). Six poems from Die Chinesische Flöte (The Chinese Flute, tr. Hans Bethge) were set to music. These poems were imbued with a sense of nature: a certain, almost imperceptible uneasiness developed into a resigned acceptance of man's mortan condition, finding consolation in the intimate contact with nature. Mahler made a personal connection to these pieces, thanks to his ailing health. Mahler completed this work in 1909, two years before his death.

Das Lied von der Erde (The Song of the Earth)
Gustav Mahler (1860 - 1911)

• Das Trinklied vom Jammer der Erde (The Drinking Song of the Sorrow of the Earth)
• Der Einsame im Herbst (The Lonely One in Autumn)
• Von der Jugend (Of Youth)
• Von der Schönheit (Of Beauty)
• Der Trunkene im Früling (The Drunkard in Spring)
• Der Abschied (The Farewell)