Mahler & Ye: The Song of the Earth

When Mahler composed Das Lied von der Erde (The Song of the Earth) between 1908 and 1909, he set six Chinese poems from the Tang dynasty in German translation. Almost a century later, composer Xiaogang Ye takes those same poems but sets them, reordered, in the original Mandarin. And what a rapturous, colorful creation it is, especially when performed with the spirit these superb musicians bring to it, conducted by the world-renowned Long Yu. Mezzo Michelle DeYoung and tenor Brian Jagde are the fine soloists in a reading that wonderfully embraces the poignancy of Mahler’s great song-symphony. Soloists soprano Liping Zhang and bass-baritone Shenyang, meanwhile, sing with genuinely touching ardor.