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No work embodies Theodor W. Adorno's quote better than Gustav Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde (The Song of the Earth). It's subject and internal structure form the core aspect of the composition and thus are the cornerstones of a work which is much more than just 'a serious piece'. Gustav Mahler wrote Das Lied von der Erde in 1908 during his extremely tumultuous later life. Before his death in 1911, he had heard the premiere of neither the orchestral version nor his handwritten piano version. One important result of this was that the piano version disappeared from the public eye and remained in the possession of his window Alma Mahler. It's first performance was not until 1989. Since then, few pianists have ventured to it, certainly due to the fact that the orchestral version has itself long been established as an important work worldwide. The pianist and producer Christian Kalberer, together with Alexandra von Roepke and Peter Furlong, chooses the straight, unguarded musical path, musique directe, as a way of a dialectic of enlightenment. As Mahler wrote in a letter to Bruno Walter about this composition I believe that it is the most personal thing I've done so far. At this time Mahler was still quite unsure about what to call the piece. At the first opportunity though, he gave it the farthest, furthest title The Song of the Earth. Contained within it's musical and dramatic continuity is a complete philosophy, which is reserved for only the greatest, teh most successful works of art.
