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This question was closed without grading. Reason: Other
French to English translations [PRO] Art/Literary - General / Conversation / Greetings / Letters / Opera festival review
French term or phrase:entre deux impressions d’immensité
Outre le récital Wolf et Mahler de Thomas Hampson et Wolfram Rieger, deux concerts du programme Mainstage proposaient une incursion dans le répertoire de lieder au public du Verbier Festival. Commençons par en citer un autre : entre deux impressions d’immensité de la Symphonie n° 2 de Mahler,
"Amid two great planes of vastness" ...maybe? And also, despite my research, I still cannot see what "deux" refers to here,
I agree with you on "Movements 1–3 form one 'impression d'immensité', while Mvt 5 is the second one, and squished in between is this Lied". That is how I interpreted the meaning before reading the contributions here.
Still over-translation, really: we don't know that these great chunks of indigetible Mahler were particularly well performed (in fact, the text tends to imply otherwise) — the 'imprssion of immensity' comes from the nature of the music, not its performance, but your proposal somehow suggests that the rest of the symphony was so well performed, it eclipsed the performance of "Urlicht"
I'm afraid I don't think that works at all! Whilst I have no problem with the notion of 'dwarfed' to render 'se cache', I think by over-translating with the addition of "seems to have become", you put a completely different (and unwelcome!) twist to the meaning. There are simpler, more elegant, and certainly more natural ways of expressing the same idea in a manner that remains more true to the source text.
I have now opted for Phil's idea of "dwarfed". "Let's start by citing another, which seems to have become dwarfed between two magnificent stretches of Mahler's Symphony No. 2. "
Once again, I hardly feel that any variety of 'expanse' really fits here — unlike some composers, I don't think Mahler 2 "Resurrection" is primarily impressive for its length, which tends to be the dimension we generally associate with the notion of 'expanse': a composer taking quite a long time to express and develop their ideas. Particularly since the last movement appears to be a scherzo described as "wild herausfahrend"! Though it does last ≈ 35'. Although I realize the term couldn't be used in register as it stands, I think Mahler 2 is a bit more like my Mum's fruit cake, where you could really talk about 'great slabs of music'! I wish I could just draw you what I mean! One commentator refers to the (quite short) 1st movement thus "The great funeral march that is the first movement is impressively done." If you haven't already, maybe you'd do well to listen to the symphony, to give you a "feel" for it; the visual impression I'm getting is of a street in New York dominated by towering blocks of various sizes in sombre stone, with suddenly a gap with just a tiny, flower-bedecked cottage, on which a shaft of sunlight haps to fall...
I changed "great planes of vastness" - see my first discussion entry. But I have changed again following Phil's entry, to: "...by citing another, which seems to have slipped between two vast expanses of Mahler's Symphony No. 2. "
I really don't think "great planes of vastness" would work here — for a start, it's pretty much a pleonasm, and also, I don't think Mahler's 2nd is really 'immense' in the sense of its length / breadth, which would tend to be what 'vast planes' might suggest — you know, a very long symphony. Surely it is more a very imposing symphony, and it seems that for some reason, this little song "Urlicht" got hidden in between two parts of the symphony — perhaps like a quiet moment between two storms. I don't know the work well enough to advise better, but that's clearly what the 'two' refers to. Ah, well there you have it: Movements 1–3 form one 'impression d'immensité', while Mvt 5 is the second one, and squished in between is this Lied
Gustav Mahler, Symphony No. 2 in C Minor, "Resurrection" 1. Allegro maestoso "Totenfeier" 2. Andante moderato 3. In ruhiger fließender Bewegung 4. "Urlicht" (sehr feierlich, aber schlicht) 5. Im Tempo des Scherzo (wild herausfahrend)
Let's start by citing another, which seems to fall between two great expanses of Mahler's Symphony No. 2. This was performed at the closing of Saturday's performance by a Verbier Festival Orchestra that had become a little wearied by its busy schedule.
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14 mins confidence:
amid two impressions indicative of grandeur/expansiveness