Word of this recording
spread as soon as the concert ended:
it has almost legendary status. But
this is more than just an excellent
performance by two of the most outstanding
performers of their generation. Hampson's
love for Mahler's music makes his interpretations
of the composer in many ways definitive.
When the International Gustav Mahler
Institute in Vienna, researched Mahler's
original scores and manuscripts to produce
accurate critical editions, Hampson
offered personal, financial and artistic
support for the Wunderhorn songs project
under Dr Renate Hilmer-Voit. This recording
represents a "state of the art" insight
into modern Mahler interpretation, by
an artist in his prime. His enthusiasm
shines through, suffusing the performance.
It is also illuminating as a document
on how performers work together – Hampson
and Reiger talk about as well as demonstrate
the dialogue that turns voice and piano
into song. "Song is a metaphor for the
giving of the soul", says Hampson, and
the Wunderhorn poems helped Mahler express
ideas dear to his heart.
Hampson goes straight
to the heart of the Wunderhorn ethos.
The poems were collected from oral folk
sources by Clemens Brentano and Achim
von Arnim. They were published in 1806/8.
Their almost revolutionary impact is
hard to appreciate today. They helped
transform European sensibility from
the classical to the Romantic. These
were songs of ordinary people, not church
and state. They express a feisty, almost
subversive, individualism. They explore
psychological issues and magic, long
before the concept of the subconscious
was formulated. It was as if a deep
river of human experience was given
release, transforming the mental landscape
of European thought. What we take for
granted today as "modern" in many ways
stems from the Wunderhorn spirit with
its irreverent independence and psychological
depth. As Hampson says "we must never
question the beauty, value and indigenous
right of human beings to think and to
hold their own beliefs". "Song literature",
he says "would be infinitely less rich
without these songs, which have so many
musical possibilities." Wunderhorn helped
Mahler take song beyond Schubert and
Schumann and right into the modern world.
Mahler's songs were
published in different collections,
and also incorporated songs into his
symphonies. The only real "cycle" is
Kindertotenlieder. Thus Hampson covers
all these aspects of Wunderhorn material
in Mahler's work, grouping his recital
into themes. The first part refers to
"Fables and Parables of Nature and Man".
The poems make mordant comment on human
nature, disguised as the actions of
birds and animals. Lob des hohen
Verstanden has a competition between
a cuckoo (who keeps time but isn't inventive)
and a nightingale (whose song is complex
though elusive). A donkey decides on
a whim who'll win. Hampson spits out
the donkey's hee-haw with bitter irony.
Again the wilfulness of nature (and
other people) comes through in Des
Antonius von Padua Fischpredigt. The
saint preaches to some fish, who make
a show of listening, but immediately
go back to their own ways. Mahler's
notes indicate "with humour" on the
piano part but satire was not lost on
him. "This piece is really as if nature
were pulling faces and sticking its
tongue out at you.", he told a friend,
"But it contains such a spine-chilling
panic-like humour that one is overcome
more by dismay than laughter".
War, loss and death
are recurring themes in the Wunderhorn
ethic. Hampson calls some of these "negative
love songs" for they are neither optimistic
nor sentimental. Zu Strassburg auf
der Schanz, with its march rhythm
just slightly off-beat, resolves in
the evocation of trumpets and drums,
the tragedy understated. Hampson and
Reiger immediately launch into Revelge,
that most nightmarish of songs, where
a lad's serenade to his love is a parade
of skeletons, marching in formation
in the dead of night. Reiger's playing
is manic, horrific, the moments of glorious
melody sounding even more grotesque
in context. Hampson spits out the words,
like a protest at the barbarism of war
and its toll on human life. "Tra la
lee. Tra la ree" is no lullaby here,
but a mocking protest. Fischer-Dieskau
didn't do it like this: in comparison
he sounds almost too accepting. Reiger's
staccato playing is almost like a volley
of machine-gun fire. As Hampson notes,
the music evokes a mad "Drang", of Stravinsky-like
fervour, the Grim Reaper gone mad. With
our modern ears, it's like a forewarning
of the slaughter of the trenches. Der
Tambourg'sell, which follows, seems
all the more tragic in its surrender
to death.
The last part of the
recital is sub-titled "Transcendence
of Life". Hampson's vivid description
of Lied des Verfolgten im Turm
is brilliant. He refers to the picture
by Moritz von Schwind, showing a huntsman
imprisoned in a tower. Meanwhile a row
of elves are busily trying to saw down
the bars on the window to help him escape.
"Gedanken sind Frei" is the dominant
phrase in this song, thoughts are free,
ideas and imagination empower us to
break out from circumstances. A revolutionary
concept, even now. The "female" voice
urges conformity to enable survival.
The "male" voice, perhaps the voice
of the artist, seeks triumph in the
purity of ideas. There is another dialogue
in Wo der schönen Trompeten
blasen, a mysterious equivocal encounter
between the living and the dead. Hampson
and Reiger also pair Das irdische
Leben and Das himmlische Leben
– earthly and heavenly life. For
Hampson, the mother and starving child
are both victims of the brutal process
of life that chews people up, not so
different from the soldiers mown down
like wheat in the battlefield. Reiger's
playing creates a powerful image of
the threshing machine, the relentless
grinding of machinery. Yet we know that
at the end, the child will be dead,
all that processing without result.
In Heaven, there's food aplenty, so
even though the children there are dead,
they have found happiness. The piano
version of the last movement in the
Fourth Symphony is quite different from
the orchestral version. Colours change,
emphases change, singer and pianist
have to find a balance completely their
own, and this version works well. Urlicht,
again, is familiar in its symphonic,
female voice context. Here, Reiger's
playing is so beautiful, one hardly
misses the extra instruments. Hampson's
singing is flawless, soaring and soothing
at the same time.
As a visual experience,
this DVD is excellent. The filming is
sensitive, picking up musically relevant
details, like Reiger's fingers lifting
off the keys and crashing down again
at critical points in Revelge,
and then again, differently, in Das
himmlische Leben. Understandably
there is much emphasis on Hampson's
facial expressions. Because he is an
opera singer facial drama comes naturally
to him, though it is perhaps a little
de trop for Lieder fundamentalists.
But I don't care, when singing is as
beautiful as this. Le Châtelet
is a gorgeous venue, and the filming
captures its atmosphere, and audience.
Altogether, an unmissable, enriching
experience.
Anne Ozorio
Thomas Hampson, baritone, Wolfram Reiger, piano
TDK
DVD DVVTTHEUR [91.00"] 