Kathleen Ferrier in New York
Bruno Walter interviewed by Arnold Michaelis, Part 1 [8:25]
Gustav MAHLER (1860-1911)
Das Lied von der Erde [58:54]
Bruno Walter interviewed by Arnold Michaelis, Part 1I [2:56]
Johann Sebastian BACH (1685-1750)
Vergiss mein nicht, BWV505 [2:35]
Ach, dass nicht die letzte Stunde, BWV439 [1:56]
Gottfried Heinrich STÖLZEL (1690-1749)/JS BACH
Bist du bei mir, BWV508 [3:40]
Kathleen Ferrier (contralto)
Set Svanholm (tenor)
John Newmark (piano)
New York Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra / Bruno Walter
rec. live 18 January 1948, Carnegie Hall, New York (Mahler); 8 January 1950, Town Hall, New York (Bach); 1956, Bruno Walter’s home, Hollywood, USA (interview). ADD.
German texts & English translations included
SOMM ARIADNE 5007 [78:28]
Kathleen Ferrier and Bruno Walter made a celebrated studio recording of Das Lied von der Erde in Vienna in May 1952 (review). You will probably be familiar with that recording, which has attained classic status, if you are an admirer of Mahler or of Kathleen Ferrier – and certainly if you are a fan of both. The late Tony Duggan found much to praise in that performance but he felt obliged to point out that both Ferrier and her fellow soloist, Julius Patzak, were past their respective bests by the time the recording was made – Ferrier had just over a year to live; she died in October 1953.
The present recording preserves a live performance given just over four years earlier with a different tenor and with a different orchestra. The performance isn’t new to the catalogue. It’s available on a single disc, which I’ve not heard, from Pristine Audio (review). I’ve encountered it in a substantial box set, The Mahler Broadcasts 1948-1982 which the New York Philharmonic themselves issued in the late 1990s (review).
Paul Campion tells us in the SOMM booklet that Ferrier first sang Das Lied von der Erde in 1947 at the inaugural Edinburgh Festival. In the second of the two interview segments included on this CD, Bruno Walter relates that when he thought of performing Mahler’s song cycle in Edinburgh, he was keen to engage a British singer and Ferrier, then unknown to him, was recommended. She sang Brahms’ Sapphische Ode to him as an audition piece and he engaged her on the spot. On the strength of that Edinburgh performance he brought her to New York for three performances of the work in January 1948; this constituted her US debut. It’s the third of those performances, which was broadcast, which is preserved on this CD. Apparently, Ferrier was troubled by a heavy cold during her time in New York but perhaps the worst was behind her by the time of this third performance because one would not know she was at all under the weather.
When the New York Philharmonic issued this performance as part of their Mahler Broadcasts set their source material was Voice of America lacquers for the first, fourth and sixth songs and privately recorded off-air lacquers for the other songs. SOMM’s restoration engineers, Norman White and Adrian Tuddenham, have had access to seven double-sided 78rpm acetate transcription discs which derive from the Carnegie Hall Recording
Company. This, we are told, was an independent business that recorded many concerts in the hall during the 1940s and 1950s. Apparently, the recordings were not intended for commercial sale and were used either by the NYPO or by CBS, who broadcast many of the concerts. I can only presume that these discs weren’t available to the NYPO in the late 1990s. The original discs, which are now more than 70 years old, are subject to some surface noise but we are told that no attempt has been made to eradicate the noise.
Frankly, the results that Messrs White and Tuddenham have achieved are astounding. The NYPO transfer was not at all bad but all the A/B comparisons I have made show the SOMM transfer to be much superior. The sound has significantly more impact than the NYPO transfer. Thus, we find that the voices of the soloists, who are given suitable prominence in the sound picture, register with even more presence. The orchestra sounded somewhat muffled on the NYPO’s transfer but now emerges with much greater clarity and as a result more inner detail is evident. The sound of the orchestra, and especially the percussion, is rather overloaded in the loud fast passage in ‘Von der Jungend’ but for the most part the orchestra comes across extremely well. There is some evidence of surface noise - for example, at the start of ‘Der Abschied’ – but never to a troubling extent. You will hear a fair amount of coughing from the audience but I didn’t find this too distracting – in mitigation, one must remember this was New York in early January. However, the audience strains my tolerance twice: there is a smattering of applause after the first song but this is far less of a problem than the unrestrained applause that begins before the last note of ‘Der Abschied’ has had time to decay; that’s insensitive, to say the least.
I stress that I’ve not heard the other two CD incarnations of this performance, and Ralph Moore was complimentary about the Pristine Audio version, but this new SOMM transfer will take some beating, I think. I suspect that the original sources used were superior to those used in the Mahler Broadcasts set. Furthermore, audio restoration techniques continue to improve.
What of the performance? Well, it’s a considerable achievement, I believe. Bruno Walter, of course, had a pedigree second to none when it comes to Das Lied von der Erde and he conducts with great authority and understanding. Listen, for example, to the idiomatic way he conducts ‘Der Einsame im Herbst’, ever supportive of his soloist – the woodwind and strings introduce that song most persuasively. He sustains concentration in the long span of ‘Der Abschied’ very well indeed and throughout the work I found his direction thoroughly persuasive.
His tenor was the Swedish Heldentenor, Set Svanholm. Born in 1904, Svanholm would have been 43 at the time of this performance and he was already a very experienced singer. I was interested to read in the booklet an extract from a letter that Ferrier wrote home at the time in which she said of her fellow soloist ‘he’s hardly had a kind word’. Be that as it may, his singing is strong and virile, offering a more heroic approach to ‘Das Trinklied vom Jammer der Erde’ than does Julius Patzak on the 1952 Decca version. Of course, by the time of that recording Patzak had just turned 53 and in any case his voice was not as big an instrument as Svanholm possessed. Even though the Swede had a larger voice he was still capable of bringing lightness to ‘Von der Jungend’, though perhaps not to the same extent as Patzak. There are pros and cons to the performances of both but here, despite some audible strain at times, Svanholm is a notable partner to Ferrier.
Inevitably, though, the listener’s prime focus will be on Ferrier and she does not disappoint. Fired, no doubt, by the presence of an audience and, perhaps also, by excitement at a relatively new role to her repertoire, she seems to me to be more giving and outgoing than is the case on the 1952 recording. One must also consider that by 1952 her strength must have been sapped by her illness. I wonder also if in this New York performance, knowing it was the last one in the run – and being broadcast – she felt able to ‘let go’. Her voice comes across beautifully in the recording and this means we can relish her expressiveness – and control – in ‘Der Einsame im Herbst’. ‘Von der Schönheit’ is no less fine – and here I appreciated the fact that the orchestra was not as muffled as is the case on the NYPO transfer. Inevitably, a performance of Das Lied von der Erde stands or falls by ‘Der Abschied’ and Ferrier, supported at every turn by Walter, gives a memorable performance. From start to finish her singing is intense but she never allows emotion to shake her control of the voice. Her delivery of the passage beginning ‘O Schönheit! O ewigen Liebens’ is rapturous though, if anything, her fervour at ‘Die liebe Erde allüberall’ is even greater. The hushed close is sung with sovereign control. I’ve read somewhere – I forget where – that at the end the New York audience accorded Ferrier a prolonged personal ovation and that’s unsurprising: she and her colleagues gave them a performance that will have lived long in their memories. We are fortunate indeed that this account of Das Lied von der Erde has not only been preserved but is now available for us to savour in such an excellent transfer.
That 1948 performance was Ferrier’s US debut. So tragically short was her international career that the three fillers on this disc are taken from a concert given on her last visit to the USA just two years later, in late 1949 and early 1950. From a recital in Town Hall, New York, we hear three short items, two by Bach and one that was formerly attributed to Bach. She sings with great tonal beauty in Vergiss mein nicht and Ach, dass nicht die letzte Stunde. The final item, Bist du bei mir is taken quite slowly and is sung with great eloquence. Ferrier’s voice is recorded with excellent presence. Her pianist, the Canadian, John Newmark is slightly recessed but one can still hear that he gives his singer tasteful support.
The two excerpts from an interview with Bruno Walter are interesting. The interview was recorded shortly before the great conductor’s 80th birthday. His interviewer, Arnold Michaelis was a CBS executive. His style is deferential, to put it mildly, but Walter’s recollections of conducting Mahler and Bruckner and of Kathleen Ferrier are well worth hearing.
SOMM’s documentation is first rate; Paul Campion’s notes are excellent while the sung texts and translations are much more clearly laid out than one sometimes finds with other labels.
If you are a Ferrier devotee then even if you already have the 1952 Decca recording of Das Lied von der Erde you need to hear this 1948 performance; it’s an invaluable supplement and here it's presented in a transfer that will be hard to beat.
John Quinn
