BaL 19.06.21 - Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde

[Nick Armstrong]

I added the Haitink which is what I usually listen to.

Yes … I can’t get past Baker in the last movement - no one (including herself with Leppard) delivers the qualities she does in that performance, to these ears.

Jessye N did knock me sideways in that Prom broadcast though

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

.

... to add to Alpie's list :

Keilberth -

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B000027TLY

Horenstein -

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B000042NZC

also Inbal with the Frankfurters and Schreier, van Nes

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01AXL0C8A

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00008Q03A

.

I would normally incorporate omissions into the main list, but these all appear to be used copies, so are not available in any significant numbers.

[vinteuil]

I would normally incorporate omissions into the main list, but these all appear to be used copies, so are not available in any significant numbers.

... only tryin' to help. I thought some fellow forumisti might find it useful



.

[Richard Barrett]

I wonder what the point of the chamber arrangement is, at least in in the age of recording, given that Mahler's orchestration is so original and beautiful and so well integrated with every other aspect of the music. Also, performances with only male singers are out of contention as far as I'm concerned, for many different reasons. Those issues aside, every time I hear this piece all through I find it so emotionally overwhelming that it seems trivial to criticise the performances. Generally I know after about half a minute of the first song whether I'm going to stay the course.

[Bryn]

I wonder what the point of the chamber arrangement is, at least in in the age of recording, given that Mahler's orchestration is so original and beautiful and so well integrated with every other aspect of the music. Also, performances with only male singers are out of contention as far as I'm concerned, for many different reasons. Those issues aside, every time I hear this piece all through I find it so emotionally overwhelming that it seems trivial to criticise the performances. Generally I know after about half a minute of the first song whether I'm going to stay the course.

I'm sure you know the original reason for the chamber version. As to why it gets performed and recorded today, "because it's there", and shows what Schönberg and Riehn made of the task of preparing it, originally intended for the Society for Private Musical Performances, though I don't think it made it to performance during the society's time.

[Richard Barrett]

I'm sure you know the original reason for the chamber version.

Yes, that's why I say "in the age of recording".

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

... only tryin' to help. I thought some fellow forumisti might find it useful



.

I'm sure you're right. I merely point out the criteria used to create the list.

[Tony Halstead]

I'm sure you know the original reason for the chamber version. As to why it gets performed and recorded today, "because it's there", and shows what Schönberg and Riehn made of the task of preparing it, originally intended for the Society for Private Musical Performances, though I don't think it made it to performance during the society's time.

Could it be that Schoenberg was only too well aware, in the original version, of the extraordinary demands placed on the tenor in particular, in terms of vocal stamina and sheer decibel level?
I well remember how demoralised I was, when, in about 1971, I read the 'Torygraph's review by Peter Stadlen of a Royal Festival Hall performance in which I had played. The soloists were Janet Baker and Richard Lewis, the orchestra was the LSO and the conductor Sergiu Commissiona.
Stadlen wrote: "Lewis seemed not to be on his best form, but in fact no tenor in the world could have hoped to compete with this most obtrusive principal horn".

[Ein Heldenleben]

Could it be that Schoenberg was only too well aware, in the original version, of the extraordinary demands placed on the tenor in particular, in terms of vocal stamina and sheer decibel level?
I well remember how demoralised I was, when, in about 1971, I read the 'Torygraph's review by Peter Stadlen of a Royal Festival Hall performance in which I had played. The soloists were Janet Baker and Richard Lewis, the orchestra was the LSO and the conductor Sergiu Commissiona.
Stadlen wrote: "Lewis seemed not to be on his best form, but in fact no tenor in the world could have hoped to compete with this most obtrusive principal horn".

How very rude of him . I bet Mario Del Monaco and Franco Corelli would have rendered you inaudible(though not their repertoire . Quite rare these days for a critic to single out an orchestral player for anything other than praise ...

[Tony Halstead]

Thank you very much. But it wasn't 'these days'... it was 50 years ago

[Ein Heldenleben]

[QUOTE=Tony Halstead;850380]Thank you very much. But it wasn't 'these days'... it was 50 years ago[/QUOTE

Yes sorry I was making the point that possibly these days critics pull their punches a bit more than in 1971 . They get a lot more pressure from PR’s and in certain genres of journalism critical reviews are not welcome (bad for ad sales ).

[visualnickmos]

Thank you very much. But it wasn't 'these days'... it was 50 years ago

Even so, I think critics have had, and do have their own bizarre agendas. They seldom appear to enjoy the "moment" of a live performance in the same way as the paying audience.

[Bryn]

Even so, I think critics have had, and do have their own bizarre agendas. They seldom appear to enjoy the "moment" of a live performance in the same way as the paying audience.

Now there's a synchronistic coincidence worthy of Jung. In the conversation linked to by Alison a few hours ago, Schiff and his interlocutor share a point about the difference in musical perception of those who pay to hear and those who get in free.

[Barbirollians]

Now there's a synchronistic coincidence worthy of Jung. In the conversation linked to by Alison a few hours ago, Schiff and his interlocutor share a point about the difference in musical perception of those who pay to hear and those who get in free.

Ferney - would rightly have told us Ferrier/Patzak/Walter is in a class of its own way out in front.

[Petrushka]

Yes … I can’t get past Baker in the last movement - no one (including herself with Leppard) delivers the qualities she does in that performance, to these ears.

My very first Das Lied was the 1936 VPO/Walter on a HMV Treasury LP which I bought in 1974 but I subsequently found it very hard to get past Janet Baker, either for Haitink or Leppard, for many years. I saw Dame Janet give a Prom performance of Das Lied in 1983 with Sir John Pritchard and the BBCSO in what must surely have been one of her last of this work. Does anyone know when her last one was?

Nowadays, I've got a wide range of artists and over the years have accumulated 28 versions. If it's not Janet Baker then the Maureen Forrester/Richard Lewis combination is my most favoured, appearing together on several in my collection.

My top choice would be King/Baker/Concertgebouw/Haitink with my second choice being Kollo/Ludwig/BPO/Karajan. Third would be Lewis/Forrester/Chicago SO/Reiner.

The Karajan has a numinous aura about the sound quality that is very appropriate for his reading.