Ying Fang / Karen Cargill

Scofield: This Mahler Symphony No. 2, the Fourth Movement is also called “Urlicht”, Primal Light, which certainly has a strong spiritual connotation, doesn’t it? And his setting for it, he called, very solemn, very simple, and it’s in the key of D flat major. Now, Ying Fang, Karen, what does that key evoke in you?

Cargill: I can tell you what it evokes for me when I’m on the platform, is panicking that I’m going to get my first note right. [Laughter] I don’t think I ever really think about the key in that moment. There’s a slight foreboding, I think. It’s triumphant in the end of meeting this angel.

Scofield: Yeah, and the angel tries to lead the singer astray, doesn’t she? She sees a little red rose, she’s in pain, and then the angel comes, and urges her to turn aside. And then she has very powerful lines and says, “I will not be turned away. I am from God, and I shall return to God.” How does it make you feel when you sing those lines?

Cargill: Even if you’re not a spiritual person, I think it makes you have one of those moments where you ask yourself the questions of what lies beyond, and who we are, and why we’re here. You know, it is the thoughts on “where we are” and “who we are”, and it’s a triumphant moment, I think, at the end. Because she’s made a choice to determine who she is and be the person that she is. I think that’s a question that we ask ourselves every day, that we have to stay true to who we are.

Scofield: Ying Fang, you also get that feeling of triumph in singing the music?

Fang: Yes, I think it’s really empowering this whole piece. It just really gives you the energy, you can even fight death, you’re greater than that. That’s, I think, the message that he’s sending in this piece and it’s so powerful.