Re: Das Lied von der Erde with Tenor and Baritone
I'm sure you're right about Mahler's provision for a baritone to sing it, Paul, as, like most composers, he would surely have preferred to have his music heard in what seems to me to be a somewhat compromised arrangement than not at all. You presumably listened - or will listen - to today's Radio 3 Record Review survey which for me confirmed that a baritone cannot evoke the otherwordly atmosphere required. Flora Wilson opined that there isn't much evidence for Mahler wanting a baritone and quoted Bruno Walter saying that he was sure Mahler wouldn't have liked it had he lived to hear the work performed that way. It seems to me that lighter, female voices like those of Sarah Connolly and Alice Coote lack the dark, burnished quality of Ferrier, Baker, Ludwig and Norman; they do not have the right weight and colour, and use too much vibrato. (Connolly is, I think much better for Nézet-Séguin in 2011 than in that recent 2020 recording under Jurowski.) One of my favourite versions by Colin Davis with Norman and Vickers did not even get a mention and given the inadequacy of the tenor, I cannot agree with the overall endorsement of Albrecht recording as the prime recommendation, but I am glad that Gibson's 1974 recording with Alfreda Hodgson and John Mitchinson was mentioned in passing.
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Message Thread
Das Lied von der Erde with Tenor and Baritone - Paul Breslin June 15, 2021, 11:41 pm
- Re: Das Lied von der Erde with Tenor and Baritone - John Quinn June 16, 2021, 8:41 am
- Re: Das Lied von der Erde with Tenor and Baritone - Ralph Moore June 16, 2021, 10:15 am
- Re: Das Lied von der Erde with Tenor and Baritone - Ralph Moore June 16, 2021, 10:21 am
- Re: Das Lied von der Erde with Tenor and Baritone - Brian Wilson June 16, 2021, 9:25 pm
- Re: Das Lied von der Erde with Tenor and Baritone - Marc Bridle June 24, 2021, 1:32 am
- Re: Das Lied von der Erde with Tenor and Baritone - Mike Parr June 28, 2021, 11:49 pm
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