MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2023
Approaching 60,000 reviews
and more.. and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


 REVIEW

Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

Availability
CD: Buywell


Gustav MAHLER (1860-1911)
Rückert-Lieder (1901-2) [20:35]
Lieder eines Fahrenden Gesellen (1884) [17:10]
Kindertotenlieder (1901-4) [29:15]*
Marilyn Horne (mezzo)
Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra/Zubin Mehta
*Royal Philharmonic Orchestra/Henry Lewis
rec. Royce Hall, Los Angeles, March 1978; *Kingsway Hall, date not given
DECCA ELOQUENCE 442 8287 [67:16]
Experience Classicsonline

This reissue is a worthwhile addition to the Mahler catalogue, but it inadvertently underlines the risks of vocal over-exposure, even for a great singer.

The original LP of the Kindertotenlieder - for which Decca oddly provides no recording dates - appeared in the early 1970s, at roughly the same time as Horne's acclaimed 1971 opening-night Carmen at the Metropolitan Opera. This cycle gives us the artist at the peak of her vocal powers. Horne's voice sounds round and luscious; she maintains a full tone even at medium dynamics, opening and settling into a deep, satisfying chest-based mix on descending lines, as at "erlosch'ner Freudenschein" in Wenn dein Mütterlein. She scales the voice down nicely for the softer passages in Nun seh' ich wohl, though the subito pianissimo on "Sterne" tightens. Most importantly, Horne uses her voice and technique to serve the music and text, inflecting the words with purpose, shaping the vocal phrases accordingly. Only the unmarked, unmotivated pushes forward in Wenn dein Mütterlein seem questionable.

The other two collections were recorded less than a decade later, yet Horne's voice is already showing signs of wear. The singer tends to nudge long phrases along note by note, instead of sustaining through in a steady legato stream. The top of the staff more frequently betrays strain. The chest register is still impressively "deep," but hard-edged rather than plush; the entire voice sounds thinned-out, less solidly integrated than before.

Horne's interpretive instincts remain keen, but such vocal limitations, while hardly critical, compromise the singer's ability to realize her intentions. In Ich atmet' einen Linden duft, the first of the Rückert songs, the cadence at the end of the first strophe ("Wie lieblich war der Lindenduft") sounds consoling, but the tone isn't as warm or enveloping as one wants. The curving ascents of Liebst du um Schönheit are solid, but not expansive; the "big" one near the start, at "Liebe die Sonne," is effortful, and that at "Liebe den Frühling" distinctly climbs up from below. The broad, almost symphonic scale of Um Mitternacht plays to Horne's strengths - she wasn't a miniaturist - and, indeed, she brings a nice sense of exultation to the move into major at "in deine Hand gegeben," along with some strain; there's also some iffy tuning and poky legato along the way, with some midrange pitches not quite attacked head-on.

The Wayfarer cycle was one of this singer's specialties - I remember a lovely Carnegie Hall performance, with William Steinberg and the Pittsburgh Symphony, in the early 1970s. Her Ging heut' Morgen has a nice ease and point, and she brings a good rhythmic alertness and drive to Ich hab' ein glühend Messer. But the legato isn't evenly sustained, and the tuning becomes questionable in too many places. The top is reasonably full when approached by the right combination of pitch and vowel, as at "allerliebsten Platz" in Die zwei blauen Augen; otherwise the upward leaps are strained. 

The conducting, more by accident than by design, parallels the vocal quality in each case. In the Kindertotenlieder, Henry Lewis - an indifferent baton technician, but an expert orchestral colorist - draws beautiful, plush sounds from the Royal Philharmonic. But some of the pianos and pianissimos are lost in the process - the horn in Nun will die Sonn' produces a healthy mezzoforte - and one also vaguely feels that Mahler's sparser textures perhaps shouldn't sound quite so full. Zubin Mehta, leading the capable Los Angeles Philharmonic, has a nice feel for the Mahlerian palette and musical gesture, notably in Um Mitternacht. But here, too, some of the playing is simply too "present" and up-front; the stylish, sparkling woodwinds aren't always quite in tune; and, save in the vibrant coda of Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen, the string sound is mostly dry. Nor is Mehta's control ideal: the dramatic Ich hab' ein glühend Messer hurtles forward with insufficient rhythmic grounding; and in Liebst du um Schönheit, although the right orchestral voices always emerge in the balances, the overall framework sounds vaguely unkempt.

The recorded quality is mostly excellent, though I suspect close orchestral miking contributes to the overripe sounds of the Kindertotenlieder. In Nun seh' ich wohl in the same cycle, an excessive echo suddenly blankets Horne's top F and E-flat at "bereits zur Heimkehr schicke." And one assumes that Horne's account of Wagner's Wesendonck Lieder - the Kindertotenlieder's original discmate - is, for now, lost in digital limbo.

I'll return to this as a memento of a beloved artist's career, with the Kindertotenlieder showing Horne at her best. But for a "singing" - as opposed to heavily "interpreted" - version of the Wayfarer cycle, I'd go with one of the baritones, perhaps Hermann Prey (Philips).

Stephen Francis Vasta 

 


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools




Return to Review Index

Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.