Product Review

The loss of his five-year-old daughter and the prognosis of his own premature death this was composer Gustav Mahler s summer of 1907. How to go on? By courageously transforming despair into a redemptive masterpiece: The Song of the Earth. Everywhere and Forever, a film by Jason Starr, explores the biographical, cultural and philosophical context of this first-ever song-symphony . In setting to music ancient Chinese poems about beauty, drunkenness, love and loss, Mahler confronts mortality by unveiling the Earth as the everlasting context of our being.
Film includes excerpts from Das Lied von der Erde performed by Paul Groves, tenor; Thomas Hampson, baritone; and Neeme Järvi leading Orchestre de la Suisse Romande. Commentary by Peter Franklin, Henry-Louis De La Grange, Thomas Hampson, Stephen Hefling, Catherine Keller, Marina Mahler, and Morten Solvik.
SPECIAL FEATURES: Seven Mini-Documentaries which expand on the biographical, philosophical, and musical issues discussed in the film.