Des Knaben Wunderhorn

 

 

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The recorded catalogue of works by Gustav Mahler continues to grow and fortunately so do performances of his works in the concert halls around the world. With so many recordings from which to choose, recommending the 'best' is completely impossible. There is much more leeway when it comes to the symphonies: Mahlerites tend to lean toward the Rattle/ Tilson Thomas/ Salonen/ Boulez school or the Giulini/ Walter/ Bernstein school but even that leaves an inordinate number of successful conductors unmentioned. The Song Cycles of Mahler are less frequently recorded and also they are often recorded in combination with a few of one cycle plus a few from another etc.

It is then with rather great clarity that one approaches this recording of DES KNABEN WUNDERHORN, with the urgent and sensitive Riccardo Chailly conducting the magnificent Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, primarily because of the opportunity to hear the cycle divided among such incredible talents as Matthias Goerne, Barbara Bonney, Sara Fulgoni and Gosta Winbergh. Having just experienced a performance of the cycle by Goerne alone with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, I thought these radiant songs could not be better performed. It will take many hearings of other singers' "Urlicht", whether in this cycle or in the position in the Symphony No 2, to erase the glow of Goerne's interpretation, but sure enough - on this recording that same song is utterly breathtaking as sung by Sara Fulgoni. Goerne and Bonney are in fine fettle, finding the core of each song and communicating the text with ravishing tone and technique. This is one of the finest Mahler recordings available and since the DES KNABEN WUNDERHORN songs play such an important role in the first four symphonies of Mahler, this seminal recording seems essential to all Mahler libraries. Truly a remarkable feat!

Chailly's recording of "Des Knaben Wunderhorn" sets another benchmark, which is to say it rivals Abbado's recent set with Quasthoff and von Otter. In truth, the two sets are not really in competition with one another, for Chailly's set includes both more songs (the further addition of "Das himmlische leben," associated with Mahler's Fourth Symphony, as well as the "Urlicht" from the Second, which Abbado's set also includes) and more singers (four instead of two), not to mention an entirely different sequence to the songs. It's impossible to choose between conductors -- both are top-notch, with Chailly perhaps emphasizing the quicksilver elements and Abbado more attuned to the elegance and morbidezza of the lyric moments. But then Chailly does have Barbara Bonney singing "Das himmlische leben" in what sounds like the performance of a lifetime. I cannot recall a performance of this song that marries innocence and uncanny wistfulness more beautifully than this one. Some of her recent recordings have revealed a certain wear on the voice, and this recording is no exception. Her breath control in "Wo die schonen Trompeten blasen," for example, remains phenomenal, but the voice can no longer ride into the upper register with the tonal purity it used to command effortlessly. But on this recording, at least, Bonney seems to have found a way to exploit the shifting center of gravity of her voice, and she creates a heartbreakingly poignant reenactment of the dialog between parting lovers. Comparison with von Otter's recording of the same song is telling. No one can create the impression of recessed grief like von Otter, and her version of the song is astonishing in a different way: iridescent tone and classical purity of line present the aural equivalent of a Pre-Raphaelite memory of a medieval illumination or tapestry. (No exaggeration.) Bonney's version shows the eroticism, fear, and pain more directly. As for the baritones, again only personal taste can be the judge: Quasthoff's singing is more robust and also more grainy; Goerne's is more suave and insinuating. The real bonuses on the Chailly disc are perhaps the contributions of the late Gosta Winbergh, in a thrilling performance of the murderously difficult "Revelge," and Sara Fulgoni, who nearly steals the entire show. Her performance of "Urlicht" easily eclipes von Otter's for Abbado (which is saying A LOT), and comes very, very close to matching the ethereal beauty of Janet Baker's performance at Ely Cathedral for Leonard Bernstein in the mid-seventies -- it's that good.

It was difficult for Mahler to be a German Jew in Bohemia, rejected by both the Bohemians because he was German and by the Germans because he was a Jew. It was even more difficult when he was obliged to convert to Catholicism to get his position in Vienna. It was evermore difficult to bear life when he lost his young daughter and discovered that he had a heart condition condemning him to an early death. So these songs for children are not exactly joyful, apart from one or two that are adapted from traditional German tales. It is most of the time stories about impossible love because the man is in prison, because the man has to go to some war, because the man does not want any love. The trumpets that are regularly souded in these tales are the trumpets of Doomsday or of war. They mean judgment and death. Mahler is carrying a heavy load of guilt, of sin, of mental heartburn. These stories are thickly lined with this ferocious vision of life as being dominated by three Ks : König, Kaiser, Krieg, the king, the Emperor, the war. Life is under the constant control of some authority, under the constant fear of some war, under the constant menace of death. And God is in no way a solace in this picture. Saint Antony of Padua comes to an empty church and goes out to preach to fish, and he fails because fish listen to him but they go back to their normal and habitual behaviors as soon as the sermon is finished. Even angels are not very helpful and try to kick men out of heavens. The music is absolutely beautiful, extremely dramatic and it associates various nuances, hues and colorations, from light viennese melodies to sombre military marches. The voices are also perfectly well adapted to this tragic vision of the world and the singing emphasizes the horror of this valley of tears in which we have to live, contemplating the beautiful green pastures knowing that sooner or later these green pastures will become our final home, our final turf, the blanket that will cover up our bones forever and ever and with no real hope to go anywhere else beyond this earth.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU

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