Das Lied Von Der Erde: Amazon.ca: Music

Product Details

Audio CD (Jan 12 2007)
Number of Discs: 1
Format: Import
Label: EMI Classics
ASIN: B00000GCAH
Other Editions: Audio CD | MP3 Download

Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (16 customer reviews)

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Track Listings

1. Das Trinklied Vom Jammer Der Erde

2. Der Einsame Im Herbst

3. Von Der Jugend

4. Von Der Schonheit

5. Der Trunkene Im Fruhling

6. Der Abschied

Product Description

Amazon.ca

Mahler considered The Song of the Earth his most personal work, and indeed it is one of his greatest and most moving. Its six sections, sung alternately by the mezzo-soprano and tenor, are set to seven poems from The Chinese Flute, a collection of Chinese lyrics translated into German by Hans Bethge, which echo Mahler's love of nature and contrast the earth's renewal each spring with the transience of human life. Composed after he lost his beloved 4-year-old daughter and was diagnosed with a serious heart ailment, the music encompasses heart-rending anguish and sublime ecstasy; conceived in the shadow of death, it is suffused with a sense of sorrowful, reluctant leave-taking finally transformed into resigned renunciation. The scoring for a large orchestra is masterful and includes many solo passages; melodic, harmonic, and instrumental devices at times create an oriental flavor. Among the work's many recordings, this is certainly one of the best. The orchestra is splendid; its wonderfully transparent sound, together with Klemperer's extremely leisurely, deliberate tempi, allows many apparently brand-new lines and details to come out and gives the second tenor solo a strikingly Chinese character. Moreover, the singers can be clearly heard, and they are incomparable: vocally glorious, musically deeply involved, sensitive to every expressive nuance and subtlety of words and music, they follow Mahler to the heights and depths of emotion, making the performance an overwhelming, unforgettable experience. --Edith Eisler

Product Description

Grammy Awardr - winning conductor Kent Nagano leads the Montreal Symphony Orchestra with soloists Christian Gerhaher and Klaus Florian Vogt in an exploration of Gustav Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde. One of Mahler's most personal works by his own admission, the piece synthesizes song and Symphony and draws on poems about the cycle of life and death from Hans Bethge's The Chinese Flute adapted by Mahler and combined with lines of his own invention. This recording features Echo-Klassik award-winning baritone Christian Gerhaher as well as newly emerging tenor Klaus Florian Vogt. Nagano is currently the Music Director of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra and General Music Director of the Bavarian State Opera Orchestra. He was also the first Music Director for the Los Angeles Opera.

Customer Reviews

Most helpful customer reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars One Of The Great Ones May 21 2004

By Jeffrey Lipscomb

Format:Audio CD

Edith Eisler's headnote strikes me as a very fair and well-reasoned assessment. I feel this is one of the great accounts of "Das Lied." Ludwig is at her most musicianly, and Wunderlich's beautiful voice is yet another sad reminder of what was lost by his early death. I heard him live just once, in a 1966 " Magic Flute," where he was even better than in his studio recording with Bohm. Klemperer opts for some stately tempos, but in general I find him far more sympathetic here than was his Mahler norm.

Is there a "definitive" recording? I don't feel that any one recording says it all in this extraordinary music. I grew up with the old Walter/Vienna recording with Kathleen Ferrier & Julius Patzak - the original London LPs still sound far sweeter and more natural than any of the later CD transfers. The problem there, for me, was the playing of the Vienna Philharmonic - the ensemble was at times distressingly poor. Walter's first one with Thorborg & Kullman was in some ways even better: both are preferable to the stereo version with Haefliger (very fine) and Mildred Miller (not so fine).

If I had to pick just three recordings for Ye Olde Desert Island, I would probably opt for the following:

1. Ferrier & Set Svanholm with Walter and the NY Phil. (1948), which is available in that orchestra's 10-disc CD set "The Mahler Broadcasts." This was, along with Mitropoulos's searing Mahler 6th, the best item in that set. Ferrier is even better than in her Vienna account - and Svanholm did the best singing I have ever heard from him.

2. The live 1939 recording with the Amsterdam Concertgebouw (Mengelberg's orchestra), conducted by Carl Schuricht. Kerstin Thorborg was the alto, even better here than she was in 1936 with Walter. Carl Martin Ohman was a true Heldentenor - I think his is the most masterly tenor account of all. The sound is rather antiquarian but adequate - mine is on a Minerva CD.

3. The Horenstein was recorded in concert (1972) with the BBC Northern Symphony. It features Alfreda Hodgson and John Mitchinson. Both singers do a wonderful job, but the real star is Horenstein - his is the most eloquent exposition of the orchestral part I have ever heard. Late in life, Horenstein remarked that his greatest regret about dying was that he would never be able to hear "Das Lied von der Erde" again. This is a very special, tremendously moving account. It is the one stereo version that I would recommend without qualification.

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5.0 out of 5 stars One of THE best Mahler recordings ever! Dec 16 2003

By John Dziadecki

Format:Audio CD

Everyone has their own opinion of which Mahler "Erde" is best. The Walter/Ferrier/Patzak/VPO is brilliant and I wouldn't want to be without it. It was my first exposure to "Erde" and recorded beautifuly in magnificent mono. Bernstein/Fischer-Dieskau/King/VPO is fabulous. If you prefer baritone to alto, this is definitely the best. Bernstein knows Mahler and this recording proves it. Both have been remastered in recent years and sound better than ever.

I've heard many recordings of this moving work over the years but I find I keep coming back to Klemperer. The Klemperer recording is rich, broad and expansive. The remastered sound is fresh and clear. The VPO is marvelous. Klemperer balances the orchestral forces and the vocalists admirably. Wunderlich and Ludwig pour their soul into the libretto. The music envelopes the listener. This is a transcendant experience.

A great recording of the century indeed. Mahler at his finest. Most highly recommended.

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5.0 out of 5 stars ONE OF THE TWO BEST Sep 27 2003

By T

Format:Audio CD

One of Mahler's darkest and sadest works finds here its definitive recording.

Klemperer as always conducts with slow, deeply profound and expressive tempi and manages to create an atmosphere of shadows in the darkest forest...

Fritz Wunderlich shines like a true gem of the lyrical tenor he was.

Christa Ludwig will indeed make you think you are listening to one of the most important Interpreters ever... Her voice reminds you of a Shining Crystal underneath of which lies Black Velvet. Her musicianship is UNSURPASSED, her feeling for the composer's style is unmistakable and her vocal colors are the darkest and subtlest ever. Indeed she makes an Unforgettable "duet" with Klemperer's orchestra and together they make one of the Best Recordings of the 20th century. In this kind of singing you do not need to understand the words at all. Ludwig is so expressive first in Einsam in Herbst (The Lonely one in Autumn) and then in Der Abschied (The Farewell).

The other definitive rcording is the legendary Kathleen Ferrier/Bruno Walter one which surely stands besides this one and together they comprise two of the best recordings ver.

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