Average user rating:  |
| You have to listen in order to believe |
| Mahler is one of my favorite composers, I consider him the best composer of symphonies ever. "Das Lied von der Erde" might not be as "big" as his other symphonies, yet with the proper vocalists, it can make you shiver in you chair. And this recording surely packs the proper vocalists. There is a perfect balance between the powerful tenor Julius Patzak and the crystal clear voice of Kathleen Ferrier. The Wiener Philharmoniker orchestra under Bruno Walter is working in perfect union with the vocalist. I don't know if this is the "best" recording of "Das Lied von der Erde", but it surely deserves a place of honor in any music lover's collection. 5 shining stars for this piece. |
| Immense secular sacred music |
| Mahler is a tremendous composer of the 20th century. His Jewish origins are showing at every turn in his music and that gives a tremendous depth in the suffering and contemplation of death that he engulfs himself into. We expect a soprano and we get Kathleen Ferrier who is an angel-like and dream-like contralto whose depth and sombreness is so great that we follow her in the earth into which the music, the singing, the lyrics and even the artmosphere of the recording lead us. We feel the tendrils of all plants growing from this earth, both overground and underground, caress us, entwine us, wrap us up, roll us up into the shroud of a promised and unevadable death. What is surprising in this great music is that there is no world beyond death, that death is nothing but a door opening onto the total merging of one person into the natural world, into the earth and the sky, the stars and the deep fire that burns under the ground, a fire of intense recollections and life beyond life in the memory of those that remain behind. Mahler is the child of a world that has lost God and that has discovered, or rediscovered, our mother Nature. No suprise then that midnight is the time when the magic of this going beyond takes place and conquers our senses. Mahler and Ferrier reach an unheard of level of mourning in this midnight that is so far from light, from daylight, from the morning that will bring the sun again. They both, music and voice, go down into this darkness, this sombreness, this angst too, never to return. Death becomes a voyage into the total and eternal life of nature and the earth that will necessarily survive us forever. Dr Jacques COULARDEAU |
| It should have six, maybe seven, stars! |
| Out of the many "Das Lied"s in my collection--starting with Bernstein/Fischer-Dieskau/King, purchased when I was a junior in high school, this is undoubtledly the nonpareil. I have owned this recording in one form or another for over thirty years--in fact, I even ordered a copy of Decca's previous CD remastering from England when I couldn't find it here, and so I was a tad hesitant to purchase another copy when this release came out; I suppose it was the three Ruckert songs that made me decide to purchase it. A quick comparison with the earlier CD sold me on this one right away. There is a clarity to the orchestra's detailing and to the singing that just wasn't there in earlier versions. The inclusion of the original cover art was a bonus, as well. This is a heartbreaker--Ferrier's wonderful dark voice is unequalled in any other performance I've heard--including Walter's earlier recording with Thorberg, as well as Christa Ludwig's with Bernstein, etc. Julius Patzak approaches his parts with a passionate abandon that I prize as well. If you care anything about Mahler, you must own this recording, along with EMI's latest re-release of Ferrier's Kindertotenlieder. There's nothing to compare. One of the greatest of great recordings, and better than ever! |
