This is the last movement of an extraordinary performance of Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, often called “Resurrection” performed in A Concert for New York as part of PBS’ Great Performances series. The concert took place as one of the many tributes to the City on the 10th Anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
The players and singers of the New York Philharmonic and the New York Choral Artists bring a special kind of knowing to Mahler’s grand, heartfelt ode to the rise and triumph of the Human Spirit judging from the instant and sustained ovation before the last note had cleared the hall. I have heard several live performances of this work, but the closing moments of this concert left me a weepy mess and desperately wishing I could have been at Lincoln Center that night.
- Rise again, yes, rise again,
- Will you My dust,
- After a brief rest!
- Immortal life! Immortal life
- Will He who called you, give you.
- To bloom again were you sown!
- The Lord of the harvest goes
- And gathers in, like sheaves,
- Us together, who died.
- O believe, my heart, O believe:
- Nothing to you is lost!
- Yours is, yes yours, is what you desired
- Yours, what you have loved
- What you have fought for!
- O believe,
- You were not born for nothing!
- Have not for nothing, lived, suffered!
- What was created
- Must perish,
- What perished, rise again!
- Cease from trembling!
- Prepare yourself to live!
- O Pain, You piercer of all things,
- From you, I have been wrested!
- O Death, You masterer of all things,
- Now, are you conquered!
- With wings which I have won for myself,
- In love’s fierce striving,
- I shall soar upwards
- To the light which no eye has penetrated!
- Its wing that I won is expanded,
- and I fly up.
- Die shall I in order to live.
- Rise again, yes, rise again,
- Will you, my heart, in an instant!
- That for which you suffered,
- To God will it lead you!
Just nothing of much interest to say. However, this is certainly interesting!
The Easter Sequence -Victimae paschali laudes
To the Paschal Victim let Christians offer a sacrifice of praise.
The Lamb redeemed the sheep.
Christ, sinless, reconciles sinners to the Father.
Death and life were locked together in a unique struggle.
Life’s captain died;
now he reign, never more to die.
Tell us Mary, “What did you see on the way?”
“I saw the tomb of the now living Christ.
I saw the glory of Christ, now risen.”
“I saw angels who gave witness;
the cloths too which once had covered head and limbs.”
“Christ my hope has arisen.
He will go before his own into Galilee.”
We know that Christ has indeed risen from the dead.
Do you, conqueror and king, have mercy on us.
Amen. Alleluia.
Holy Saturday 2011
Good Friday 2011
Holy Thursday 2011
Just one more Springtime post.
My partner - a gifted gardener and keen observer of nature - mentioned to me recently that we don’t take enough notice of Azalea blossoms. Washington area yards overflow with Azaleas in a rainbow of colors and a ride through some neighborhoods here can be as visually delightful as a trip to see THE cherry blossoms on the Tidal Basin. The normal planting scheme of massed bushes provide rolling waves of purple, magenta, yellow and pink, but the eye is led to seeing the whole bush rather ever a single blossom.
What beauty we miss.
I have no idea who “Kylie” is, but this seems like a really nice tribute to her!
DC’s weather is still deliciously uncertain. Spring dances: forward, back…left, right. A breath to the right in the warm, to the left a chill. Perhaps this is what it is like to be involved with the Earth, matching her rhythms, allowing her lead - dancing with her.
