Est 1923

Mahler Das Lied von der Erde

Record and Artist Details

Composer or Director: Gustav Mahler

Genre:

Orchestral

Label: Red Seal

Media Format: CD or Download

Media Runtime: 69

Mastering:

DDD

Catalogue Number: 09026 68043-2

Tracks:

Composition Artist Credit
(Das) Lied von der Erde, 'Song of the Earth' Gustav Mahler, Composer
Gustav Mahler, Composer
Jean Rigby, Mezzo soprano
Mark Wigglesworth, Conductor
Premiere Ensemble
Robert Tear, Tenor
It is ironic that because RCA have sat on this recording for so long, it has been pipped to the post by Herreweghe's version of Schoenberg's chamber recension of Das Lied. Although the performance, recorded at The Maltings, Snape, has many worthwhile aspects it is on the whole inferior to the Herreweghe. In terms of instrumental playing, there is little to choose between the two ensembles, both of which deliver the music with sensitivity allied to virtuosity. In the first five songs, both readings are convincing, with Wigglesworth perhaps finding more elan in the third and fifth songs. However, in the all-important finale he shows his inexperience. The pacing is simply too self-indulgent so that the music is often becalmed. The section beginning ''Es wehet kuhl'' is typical; then at the crucial ''Ich sehne mich'' the over-careful approach of both conductor and singer robs the passage of its sense of ecstatic longing. Wigglesworth here takes more than 34 minutes over the song whereas Giulini and Bernstein, neither inclined to hurry, take only 30. Herreweghe, who comes in at 29 minutes, gets the timing and the ebb and flow of the long movement absolutely right.
Rigby has a lighter voice than Birgit Remmert, Herreweghe's mezzo, and uses it intelligently and flexibly throughout, bringing an appropriate smile into her tone in the fourth song, and her German is excellent, but she hasn't the range or refulgence of Remmert who, as I pointed out in December, is an exceptionally eloquent soloist. I liked her even better in making my comparisons. Tear is more successful than Herreweghe's Blochwitz in the heroics of the first song, but his muscular, somewhat effortful singing inclines to tire the ear and isn't so appropriate to the delicacies of ''Von der Jugend'', where Blochwitz excels. Curiously RCA, like Harmonia Mundi, have placed their mezzo soloist a shade too far back in relation to the ensemble. In other respects, the recording is admirable, but the Herreweghe is the version of the work to have in its attractively slimmed-down form.'

Mahler Das Lied von der Erde

(Das) Lied von der Erde, 'Song of the Earth'

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