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A Secular Mass in Vienna Vienna
Musikverein
06/29/2025 - & June 26, 2025 (Linz)
Richard Strauss: Vier letzte Lieder
Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 4 in G major
Erica Eloff (soprano)
Bruckner Orchester Linz, Markus Poschner (conductor)
M. Poschner (© Amar Mehmedinovic)
The Bruckner Orchester Linz originated from the Linz Theater Orchestra, that city’s multi‑purpose ensemble. It acquired its present name in 1967 from conductor/musicologist Kurt Wöss (1914‑1987). It was named after Anton Bruckner (1824‑1896), who hails from a nearby village, and unsurprisingly enjoys a natural affinity for the composer and his contemporaries. Under the tenure of American Dennis Russell Davies (b.1944), it was noted for its collaboration with Philip Glass. While it performs mostly in Linz, it also offers a series of concerts at Vienna’s venerable Musikverein.
Composed in Strauss’s penultimate year, Four Last Songs are the most popular orchestral songs in the repertoire and among his most popular works. Set to three songs by Hermann Hesse (1877‑1962) and the song “Im Abendrot” (“In the twilight”, or “At dusk”) by Joseph von Eichendorff (1788‑1857). As they all deal with death, except for “Frühling” (“Spring”), and were composed just before the composer’s death, they’re considered his definitive paean to life.
Erica Eloff is a lyric soprano based in Linz but who also performs throughout Europe. Judging from the repertoire in which she specializes, she has the ideal voice for Strauss’s final work. Endowed with a pure soprano Lirico, she can easily soar, but thankfully hers is not a thin coloratura but a warm, round feminine sound. This is essential for expressivity. Eloff was able to communicate the melancholy lyricism of the text, and conveyed the requisite emotion thanks to her eloquent diction, making each word understood. The orchestral accompaniment was ideal, never too loud or obscuring her voice, with just the right level of pathos, which is always most effective when understated.
Mahler’s Fourth Symphony is one of the Des Knaben Wunderhorn symphonies (the others are Symphonies No. 2 and No. 3), where nature is an important element. Des Knaben Wunderhorn was a collection of poetry published a century earlier, purporting to be genuine German folk poetry, but it was only partially so, as the rest were invented. It was a source of inspiration for German composers of an earlier generation. Mahler opted for this naïve Romanticism instead of his usual, more tortured sources of inspiration.
Between 1888 and 1899, he set over a dozen of these poems to music, either as Lieder or verses in his second and third symphonies. He’d planned to use one poem, “Der Himmel hängt voller Geigen,” in his Third Symphony, but it was too long. Thus, the poem was renamed “Das himmlische Leben” and used as the last movement of the Fourth Symphony.
Despite the music’s apparent cheerfulness due to its pastoral character, there’s an undercurrent of anxiety. This makes for a multi‑faceted work, simple on the surface but deeply profound and complex. Maestro Markus Poschner started by creating an atmosphere of innocence and beauty, especially in the first movement, Bedächtig. Nicht eilen (“Thoughtful. Not rushed”), where he appropriately adopted a leisurely pace. In the second movement, In gemächlicher Bewegung. Ohne Hast (“In leisurely paste. Without haste”), Mahler was inspired by Self‑portrait of Death playing the violin by Arnold Böcklin (1827‑1901). So the apparently indicated “leisurely” pace is anything but that. Poschner conveyed this through nervous pacing in the movement, different from the first movement. A brief interlude for solo violin, which is often interpreted as Death itself, was intentionally sweet to indicate the ominous undercurrent in this otherworldly symphony.
The third movement, Ruhevoll (“Peaceful”) is the heart of the symphony: the gentle strings return us to a relaxed atmosphere with hints of irony. The final movement, Sehr behaglich (“Very comfortable”), is sung by soprano with text based on the Bavarian folk song “Das himmlische Leben” (“Heavenly Life”). They are the musings of a child imagining life in the afterworld. The mix of tender and crude images reaffirms the bittersweet nature of this work. The orchestra and Eloff showed their grasp of this complexity; Eloff by feigning innocence and Poschner by keeping elements of tension.
At the end of this brilliant morning concert with its winning program, one faced one’s own mortality in Strauss’s vocal masterpiece, and witnessed an ironic vision of Heaven in Mahler’s symphony. We were fortunate to be in the company of a soprano with a generous, warm timbre and an ability to communicate, supported by an orchestra with a rich, distinct sound. It was an ideal Sunday “secular” mass à la viennoise with both glorious music and stimulating philosophy.
Ossama el Naggar
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