The range of the sound on this recording is evident from the beginning with
a rich and reverberant audio picture for Jon Villars to then enter revealing
a voice of honeyed lyricism. It's not an especially varied performance that
he gives of the first song, however. As will prove in the whole of his
contribution, his stress is on beauty of tone and lyrical delivery: the
singer-actor rather than the actor-singer. The "Dunkel ist das leben" refrains
that punctuate the first song, for example, are not delivered with the
world-weary quality others rightly find and I confess to missing that somewhat,
but others will prefer this "song" sung rather than "acted". In the expressionist
centrepiece, where the singer has a nightmare vision of an ape cavorting
over graves in the moonlight, we come to an acid test for the singer whatever
his approach. Villars never sounds strained as some can which, though a tribute
to his artistry, does mean we are robbed, perhaps, of the added element of
manic drama that James King, for example, finds for Bernstein. But I enjoyed
the way Eji Oue and the orchestra rounded off the song with an emphatic crunch
of exclamation at the end, a rhetorical full stop, reminiscent of the same
moment under Bernstein again.
This will prove a rare piece of concert hall theatre from this conductor
as the opening of the second song confirms textural refinement to be Eji
Oue's prime concern. Right the way through, the varnish on Mahler's "chinoiserie"
is much thicker than under most conductors and this is certainly aided by
the rich upholstery of the recording. This approach may be a problem for
those who, like me, think the whole work, and this second song particularly,
should allow for a slightly more astringent sound palette, but there's no
doubting the excellence of what is achieved. Michelle DeYoung herself seems
set further back than her partner and her's is also a lighter voice
than we are sometimes used to in our mezzos and contraltos. But her awareness
of the meaning of the words is clearly evident from the start and more than
makes up for any slight lack of the real contralto's tone. Her description
of the little lamp burning out with a splutter, for example, is exemplary
though doesn't quite approach the depth of meaning it has under Janet Baker
(for me the finest female exponent of these songs) or Christa Ludwig. "Sonne
der liebe....", which is the first time any real warmth enters the song,
reveals the full glory of DeYoung's voice, again sure of her words and their
meaning.
The accompaniment to the third song gets a little lost in the large acoustic
space suggesting to me a more intimate production might have helped this
performance even more. But I must add that this is marginal and, as elsewhere,
the gain in richness and the feeling that you are present at a performance
more than compensates. Jon Villars alters his tone in this song as he should,
though, again, there are other singers who manage an even greater sense of
involvement. In the fifth song he brings a real element of fantasy to the
central stanza and the arrival of Spring. Again you cannot praise the beauty
of his singing too highly. Other singers might act out the part, becoming
more intoxicated as the song wears on, (like Peter Schreier), but that would
not be in keeping with the more patrician style Villars has established and
which is just as valid and engrossing.
In the fourth song Michelle DeYoung really makes us see through her eyes
the girls picking flowers by the river. Then in the central section, where
she has to describe the bursting on to the scene of the young men on horseback,
she acquits herself better than many in what must be a passage singers approach
with dread. She is helped here by a very bouncy accompaniment from Eiji Oue
and the orchestra, depicting very frisky horses indeed. Then in her delivery
of the final lines that start "In the flashing of her large eyes, in the
darkness of her passionate glance....." Miss DeYoung projects all the feminine
allure you could want. No wonder the boys on horseback stopped for a look.
The final song, "Der Abscheid" ("The Farewell"), crowns this fine performance
admirably. It finds DeYoung at her most persuasive and her conductor sustaining
the longest of spans with superb concentration right from the start. A special
words of praise for his orchestra here. It sounds like one take and all the
better for that.. There is a splendid sense of pregnant anticipation in the
opening passages, for example, with the all important lower registers of
the orchestra caught beautifully by the recording, as they are all the way
through. Then with what aching beauty are the most intimate sections put
across, especially when set against a funeral march interlude more impressive
for its noble restraint. The passage that leads back to the re-appearance
of the singer put me in mind of Bruno Walter's "live" recording in Vienna
in 1936, and there can be no higher praise than that.
So this is a recording of real stature, one that I think will repay repeated
listening. Perhaps one of those recordings which, like Horenstein's, reveals
its secrets over time, which means I'm not yet certain whether it will challenge
the very greatest before us - Klemperer, Horenstein, Sanderling, Bernstein
and Walter - but it seems in with a chance. If it does fall short, it does
so because of its stress on textural purity and beauty of tone by both orchestra
and soloists at the expense of some psychological depth. But here I may be
damning with feint praise, especially if this kind of approach is what you
desire and think appropriate. If it is, buy with confidence.
Reviewer
Tony Duggan
Jon
Villars (Tenor) Michelle DeYoung (Mezzo) Minnesota Orchestra conducted by
Eiji Oue 
