Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde (Song of the Earth)

Chronique

Marc Albrecht's PentaTone release of Gustav Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde is among the finest modern recordings of this work, both for the depth of the interpretation and for the exceptional audiophile sound quality. This is Albrecht's first recording of a Mahler work, and though he is known as a specialist in the operas of Richard Strauss, this clearly works to his advantage in Das Lied, which lies stylistically between a symphony, a song cycle, and an opera. The wonderfully seraphic Alice Coote and the intensely ardent Burkhard Fritz are highly dramatic in their delivery, and the vocal parts give the performance a theatrical air, especially because of the spacious acoustics around the voices make them seem almost operatic in the multichannel recording. The playing of the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra is marvelously shaded and vivid, providing a subtle accompaniment that reinforces Mahler's ever-changing expressions and giving Das Lied a richly burnished tone. The only problem with this recording is a trace of what seems like humming in Das Trinklied vom Jammer der Erde, which unfortunately was picked up in the highly sensitive DSD recording. Other than that flaw, this is an exceptional presentation that Mahler fans should eagerly seek out.
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