Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde (Live)

Album review

Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde came after a difficult period in his life when his daughter died from a childhood disease, he was forced out of his opera conducting position by anti-Semitism, and he was diagnosed with a serious congenital heart condition. He seems to have put his symphonic ideas into song, as it were, as a kind of personal response to these problems, and the work, for all its gigantism and its half-hour finale, has a peculiarly intimate quality. This is well-captured by the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in live performances from the Herkulesssaal in Munich, and conductor Sir Simon Rattle, who keeps the dynamics moderate and the instrumental details clear. His reading dovetails nicely with the presence of Czech mezzo soprano Magdalena Kožená, who has a somewhat lighter voice than Mahler imagined: he specified an alto and tenor, and if that wasn't available, a tenor and baritone. But the composer does not have the last word, and the text comes through here with unusual clarity and intensity. Sample the finale, Der Abschied, where Kožená and Rattle keep control over the giant Mahlerian arcs. Australian tenor Stuart Skelton, by contrast, is a more usual type of Mahlerian/Wagnerian heldentenor, and he forms quite a contrast to Kožená. Whether this enlivens the music or disturbs its balance will be a matter of individual taste, but this is certainly a Das Lied von der Erde to be reckoned with, and perhaps even to compete with the great Rafael Kubelik reading recorded in the same space.

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