Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde
Ye Xiaogang: Song of the Earth
Brian Jagde (tenor), Michelle DeYoung (mezzo-soprano), Liping Zhang (soprano), Shenyang (bass-baritone)
Long Yu / Shanghai Symphony (DG)
(scroll down for English review)
2018年余隆指揮港樂演奏馬勒及葉小綱兩個版本的《大地之歌》時，我兩場都聽了，原本只是聽第一場及為了捧Klaus Florian Vogt的場，但聽過葉小綱版本後決定再聽一次。余隆去年底在上海把這兩曲錄音，我又把葉小綱版本聽了兩次，更有樂譜可以跟着聽。
除了把第二及三樂章調轉，其實都是對應馬勒的六個樂章（馬勒：軌一至八；葉小綱：軌九至14），用回馬勒選用《中國笛》德譯的中文原詩，但第六樂章沒有用馬勒自己寫的「春回大地，生生不息」，六個樂章共40分鐘，長度上的分別主要在葉小綱沒有寫出像馬勒那麼長的第六樂章。
我不打算把兩個版本逐個樂章比較，甚至沒打算去比較。我覺得葉小綱勝在六個樂章的管弦樂都寫得很充實，我覺得尤其是一、二樂章的節奏頗有心思。問題出在歌唱部分，伍日照的粵語版企圖把唐詩塞進馬勒的旋律，已暴露了中文字節太少，不夠填音符。葉小綱就算從頭創作旋律，也要面對這個問題。而他盡量不重覆句子，亦不會把一個字拖得太長。
然而西樂有時也面對字節太少的問題，那就是聖樂的彌撒曲或安魂曲，但歷代音樂家都是克服得到，例如巴哈《B小調彌撒曲》慈悲經第一段，一句歌詞（七個音節）就拖到十分鐘。我發覺葉小綱給自己的限制（可能是無意識的限制），令六個樂章的人聲旋律都是寫得差不多，缺乏差別，無論是快板或慢板，歌唱旋律都是以長音為主，又不會像練聲曲那麼大的高低起伏，況且歌詞內容仍是聽不到。於是歌唱旋律太樸素，一配上細緻又豐富的管弦樂便相形見絀，我認為人聲旋律寫得不夠成熟，令這個用中文重寫《大地之歌》的嘗試事倍功半。
至於馬勒，和聽港樂那次一樣，我都是覺得余隆不夠重視句子的起伏及呼吸（反而他在葉小綱做得很好，多了不少樂譜沒有註明的停頓或伸延），第六樂章還是奏得太急，不想濫情結果就不夠感情。歌唱上，Brian Jagde未是頂尖的英雄男高音，迪揚雖然在此曲有豐富經驗（今次卻只是她第二次錄此曲），但這兒她遠遠未到全力，第六樂章最為明顯，或者疫情令一切停擺確實有影響。
最後要指出，第一樂章不知為甚麼，第126小節不見了，從125直接跳至127，位置大約在2:18-2:24，準確一點是在2:22。馬勒部分我沒有跟譜聽，但聽到這兒覺得少了一拍（這樂章的節奏是一小節一拍），查譜就確定了。到底是演奏時有錯（機會較低），還是剪輯出錯，但錄音監製Christopher Alder（阿巴度在DG的監製）竟也沒有發覺？
With the world in lockdown Long Yu recorded this double version of Song of the Earth with international singers, producer and engineer in Shanghai. Ye Xiaogang (1955- ) set the poems used by Mahler in their original Chinese, resulting in a 40-minute work in six movements, but the second and third movements were inverted. (In the digital version, Mahler was on tracks 1-8, and Ye on tracks 9-14, while the CD version was disc one Mahler, disc 2 Ye.) I previously heard Yu conducted both versions in concert in 2018, actually twice as I went back for the Ye version.
Ye’s forte was his rich orchestral writing; I was especially delighted by the rhythms of the first two movements. But the problem was in the vocal part. Chinese is a concise language, and poetry a concise form of language, that’s why the Chinese originals have much fewer syllables to set than the Hans Bethge translations. Ye seemed to have limited himself with almost no repetition of texts, and each syllable/character was never dragged to a long line of melisma. That’s why the vocal melodies sounded too alike although the six movements had different moods. And they sounded too bland when matched with the sophisticated orchestral writings.
As for the Mahler, this is hardly a version for keeps. As in concert Yu allowed too little room for phrasings and breaths. The sixth movement, in particular, was too rushed and the avoidance of sentimentality deprived the movement of its necessary emotions. Brian Jagde was yet to be a superb heldentenor. Although Michelle DeYoung was a seasoned performer of this work (but this was just her second recording of the work) she was far from her best on this recording. For example, the sixth movement was under-sung.
I spotted an error in the first movement as bar 126 was skipped. This occurred at 2:22, you might start hearing it a few seconds earlier. It’s more likely to be an edit error, as the orchestra couldn’t have skipped one bar without derailing. Yet the recording producer Christopher Alder (who produced many Abbado DG recordings) seemed not to have noticed.