I was very much looking forward to hearing the Michael Tilson
Thomas (hereafter MTT) recording of Das Lied von der
Erde. It is a much loved work from a conductor with a growing
reputation as a sensitive Mahler interpreter. My first run-through
left me feeling slightly disappointed but a second, more critical
hearing leaves me much more inclined to view this as a serious
challenge to established favourites.
I’m sorry to say that Kathleen Ferrier’s classic
recording with Bruno Walter is ruled out of court for me: heresy
though it be, I simply do not like her voice. Perhaps it’s because
my formative years were spent in Blackburn, where she was something
of a local hero – she’d recently died tragically young and just
about everybody with any musical pretensions claimed to have
had a hand in discovering her talent when she was working at
the telephone exchange. I’m interested to see that Tony Duggan
in his very valuable overview
of recordings of this work, which should be read in conjunction
with this review, had reservations about this recording, though
for very different reasons.
Of all available versions, Janet Baker’s 1975 Philips
recording with the Concertgebouw and Bernard Haitink comes pretty
close to the ideal, even if James King in the tenor role is
not quite Baker’s equal. The timings on this Philips recording
are generally slightly broader than on the new SFS version.
Overall, Haitink is, surprisingly, a minute slower than Klemperer’s
account on EMI (GROC 5668922).
|
Baker/King/Haitink
|
Skelton/Hampson/MTT
|
| Das
Trinklied vom Jammer der Erde |
8:15
|
8:27
|
| Der
Einsame im Herbst |
10:28
|
9:31
|
| Von
der Jugend |
3:10
|
3:16
|
| Von
der Schönheit |
7:34
|
6:57
|
| Der
Trunkene im Frühling |
4:26
|
4:25
|
| Der
Abschied |
31:11
|
30:39
|
The opening of Das Trinklied has to be a
bold statement as, indeed, it is in all three versions. The
tenor is rather cruelly exposed in that he has to enter within
a very few bars at high volume; the danger is that he will sound
too bold, with declamatory turning to stentorian. This happens
to some extent in both the Haitink and MTT versions, but is
more of a problem with King, who sounds just a little over-parted
throughout this first movement. Perhaps it is his tendency to
come close to shouting that led Haitink to a slightly faster
tempo than MTT in this movement when he is mostly a little slower
elsewhere.
In this opening movement there is little doubt
about the superiority of Fritz Wunderlich on the Klemperer recording:
I couldn’t better John Quinn’s observation that “he consistently
sings a lovely, musical line. His diction is excellent and every
note is hit securely in the middle, no matter how high the tessitura.”
(See review).
MTT is just that little less emphatic than Haitink
and Stuart Skelton is that little less declamatory than King.
At first listening I was inclined to think the opening of this
movement slightly overblown in the new SFS version but comparison
with King and Haitink is very much in MTT’s favour: both are
experienced and sensitive Mahler interpreters but MTT has a
slight edge here. Skelton is capable of some quiet and sensitive
singing where it is appropriate, as it frequently is in this
movement, though he is capable of sounding urgent, too, as at
the end of the movement when the ghostly figure of the ape leads
into the poet’s advice to drink the wine while there is time.
Der Einsame is a much more reflective movement and
I don’t find it a minute too long at Haitink’s tempo, largely
due to the success of Baker’s singing – thoughtful without being
sentimental; indeed, with plenty of power where needed. Baker’s
voice has just the right edge here – plangent without being
mournful.
MTT employs Mahler’s alternative of a baritone
in this movement. Our tendency to expect a mezzo mainly derives
from Bruno Walter’s choice at the work’s premiere and the fact
that he employed a mezzo in each of his recordings, including
his CBS remake with Mildred Miller and Ernst Häfliger (Sony
Great Performances 82876787522)
another
of my benchmarks. The contrast between the male and female voices
certainly works better for most listeners, especially when the
tenor and baritone don’t sound too different, as is the case
on Simon Rattle’s recording and, to some extent, on the new
SFS version.
Though MTT is a minute faster overall for this
movement, he does allow the music – and his soloist – time to
breathe. Thomas Hampson certainly captures the reflective mood
of this movement, but memories of Janet Baker and Christa Ludwig
on the Klemperer recording are not quite effaced. No-one quite
matches the plangent edge to Baker’s voice in this movement.
In Von der Jugend King again fails to match
Wunderlich on the Klemperer recording – again he is too declamatory,
as if his very life depended on what he sings. It’s not merely
that he sings Mahler as if it were Wagner, he sometimes comes
close to shouting. In compensation, however, Haitink’s tempo
here is much closer to my ideal than Klemperer’s 3:43 – as JQ
says, this is the one movement where Klemperer’s reputation
for slow tempi is justified.
MTT, too, at a tempo not markedly different from
Haitink’s, seems to get this movement right and once again Skelton
achieves a degree of delicacy in describing the pavilion of
green and white porcelain and the other wonders of this movement.
The description of the motionless surface of the pond brings
an especially delicate edge to Skelton’s voice. No contest here
– Skelton and Wunderlich make King sound coarse.
Hampson sounds a little plummy at the opening of
Von der Schönheit but soon settles into a fine performance.
If I weren’t so besotted with the quality of Janet Baker’s voice,
I might even admit to preferring MTT’s slightly faster tempo
here, especially in mid-movement, before returning to capturing
the reflection of the sun in the bright water every bit as sensitively
as Skelton captures the similar image in the previous movement.
The orchestral playing at the end of the movement is especially
delicate.
In Der Trunkene King largely redeems himself
so that the contrast with Baker’s sensitive singing in Der
Abschied does not sound too much of a contrast, though the
moods of the two movements should – and do – sound very different.
In the new version the orchestra captures the drunken
mood perhaps slightly better than Skelton, who is more effective
in the dreamlike section: Mir ist als wie im Traum. For
once I think King slightly the better interpreter of this movement;
both singers throw off the final words, Lasst mich betrunken
sein, with bravura but without shouting.
In the finale, Der Abschied, matters are
again much as they were in Der Einsame – a very sensitive
performance from both Baker and Hampson, with Baker having just
a slight edge and Haitink’s marginally slower tempo giving the
music an iota more space to breathe. At 31:11 the Baker/Haitink
version of the finale might look too long on paper, but the
broad tempo works extremely well.
As in Von der Schönheit, I could be very
pleased with this new account were it not for the ghosts of
Baker, Ludwig and, to a lesser extent, Miller in my head. And,
for all my disparagement of the Ferrier-Walter version, there
is the pathos of hearing a singer for whom this truly was a
farewell. MTT’s and Haitink’s tempi are not that far apart and
the closing pages here are every bit as magical as on the Eloquence
CD, with the final ewig hanging eternally in the air.
Like LSO Live on their recent Mahler recordings, SFS remove
the final applause – I’d have liked some of it left in. I’m
sure it was rapturous: it deserved to be.
Das Lied has to hang together as the vocal symphony that
it is in all but name. Already under a sentence of death from
the heart problem which had been discovered some years previously,
Mahler had a superstitious dread of writing a numbered ninth
symphony – something which no-one had achieved since Beethoven.
In the event, he did manage a ninth and even composed enough
of a tenth for Deryck Cooke and others to have produced a credible
completion.
At Haitink’s hands the work does hang together
as a symphony, as it does also for Klemperer. Tony Duggan rather
underplayed the virtues of the Haitink, though he did concede
that purchasers need not hesitate to obtain this version. Neither
Haitink nor Klemperer attempts the kind of symphonic synthesis
that some have found in Ormandy’s version on budget-price Sony
– in any case, Mahler’s symphonies often burst the bonds of
the four-movement format – nor does MTT, but he does achieve
a degree of coherence that makes this new version the equal
of those classic accounts. The San Francisco Chronicle,
quoted on the sfsymphony.org homepage, spoke of the assurance
and dynamism of this interpretation of Mahler’s late style,
which aptly sums up my own response to the recording.
I don’t find King too much of a liability but if
you want Baker without King, go for her BBC Legends performance
under Leppard (BBCL42432 – note the change of catalogue number
and increase in price since TD’s overview) or, better, her live
version with Waldemar Kmennt and Rafael Kubelík on Audite 95.491,
which Tony Duggan recommended in glowing terms:
This is one of the all-time
great Mahler recordings: a classic version of this inexhaustible
masterpiece in every way. Indeed I think there are none to surpass
it, perhaps only to equal it. You will be moved, delighted and
changed by it. I cannot recommend it too highly as it goes to
the top of my list for this work. (See review).
The Philips ADD recording still sounds well, even
in the ambi-sonic remix on the Eloquence CD – I know that some
hearers dislike such tinkering with the sound, but I have never
found it disconcerting. The new SFS recording is more immediate
– but not too close – and lifelike, even in stereo; the difference
is noticeable in both loud and quiet passages, but it doesn’t
put the older Philips out of court. There is little evidence
of audience noise on the new live recording to spoil even the
quietest passages, such as the end of Von der Schönheit.
The excellence of the recording may well tip the balance for
those who don’t mind paying a little more than for the budget-price
Philips Eloquence or the mid-price EMI, especially for those
with surround sound for whom the SACD version will be an added
recommendation.
The Eloquence CD comes without any notes other
than bare movement listings and times. New listeners really
do need a guide to the music and, above all, the texts and translations
of the poems from Hans Bethge’s collection. One needs these
texts to appreciate the way in which Mahler matches his settings
to the exotic imagery of the Chinese poems.
The SFS packaging, by contrast, is elaborate and
luxurious – a little too elaborate, since the CD and booklet
fit so very tightly into a cardboard outer case that it is hard
to extract them. It’s a little like some Hyperion CDs where
the booklet is so generous that it’s hard to get it back into
its case: the new release of Handel’s Parnasso is a case
in point.
The Baker/Haitink version is available on Eloquence
4681822; I’d advise you to buy it fairly quickly, as these original
European-sourced CDs are being slowly deleted and there is no
guarantee that Australian Eloquence will replace them. Otherwise
the same recording is to be had on a Duo set with Des Knaben
Wunderhorn, Kindertotenlieder and Lieder eines
fahrenden Gesellen (4540152). Listening to this version
again for comparison has, if possible, endeared it to me even
more. Conversely, I am now inclined to rule the Miller-Häfliger-Walter
version out of court.
Choose the Eloquence for Baker and Haitink and
its budget price, the EMI for the excellence of Klemperer and
both soloists, the Audite for Baker with a better partner, or
the new San Francisco version for its all-round virtues and the
quality of the recording. You might even consider pairing it,
as the best available baritone version, with one of the older
mezzo recordings.
Brian
Wilson
