On this well filled disc
we have some early 20th century
major works, conducted by one of Europe’s
least well known experts in the field.
Michael Gielen, who composes as well as
conducts has an extensive knowledge and
experience of this repertoire. More than
that, he is able to pass on his intentions
to the musicians of his well trained radio
orchestra.
The recordings are all
in perfectly acceptable radio quality
sound. Normal orchestral balances are
set well back in the hall, with clear
unadulterated sound; just what these works
need and get. Recorded by SWR in their
admirable studios we get a good perspective
of the orchestra in a very believable
acoustic without any instrumental spotlighting
to spoil the performances. They could
not be described as Hi-Fi recordings,
but in this repertoire that is not a bad
thing. What we do get here is a series
of highly musical performances with no
distortion of tempo or of dynamic levels.
The disc opens with the
Kindertotenlieder, ably sung by
Cornelia Kallisch, a young highly experienced
German singer who has appeared throughout
Europe in both opera and song recitals.
In the Kindertotenlieder she displays
a fine technique; I enjoyed this performance
immensely. There is a level of emotion
in her singing which conjures up for us
the right amount of both compassion and
horror with Mahler’s texts. She sings
with a clear tone, some but not excessive
vibrato, and handles Mahler’s complex
writing very ably. The only complaint
(slight) is when she sings a run of notes
up and down: here there are some ugly
sounds which should have been corrected
before final edit. In addition, the last
song in the cycle, In diesem wetter, the
tempo is distressingly slow, and I am
not sure whether this is due to conductor
or soloist. You should try this before
purchase.
The first of the two
Webern items, early compositions in the
composer’s oeuvre, is played delectably,
with the conductor’s sharp ear for detail
clearly evident. The orchestra handle
this score with confidence and the recording
delivers this level of playing to the
listener with clarity and power – very
impressive.
On reaching the last
work on this disc, the early student work
Im Sommerwind, Gielen is up against
stiff competition from Chailly and the
Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra on Decca.
This is a more technicolour recording,
but I didn’t find the new one suffering
by comparison.
For most of us Gielen’s
reputation rests primarily on his disc-based
repertoire. That reputation is secure.
I was very impressed by this disc, apart
from a slight reservation about the Kindertotenlieder.
John Phillips
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