Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde
Otto Klemperer's Das Lied von der Erde - a classic recording
The Gramophone Choice
Christa Ludwig mez Fritz Wunderlich ten Philharmonia Orchestra, New Philharmonia Orchestra / Otto Klemperer
EMI 566892-2 (64‘ · ADD · T/t). Recorded 1964-66. Buy from Amazon
In a famous BBC TV interview Klemperer declared that he was the objective one, Walter the romantic, and he knew what he was talking about. Klemperer lays this music before you, even lays bare its soul by his simple method of steady tempi (too slow in the third song) and absolute textural clarity, but he doesn’t quite demand your emotional capitulation as does Walter (see below). Ludwig does that. In the tenor songs, Wunderlich can’t match Patzak, simply because of the older singer’s way with the text: ‘fest steh’n’ in the opening song, ‘Mir ist als wie im Traum’, the line plaintive and the tone poignant, are simply unsurpassable.
By any other yardstick, Wunderlich is a prized paragon, musical and vocally free. The sound on the revived EMI is very fresh: with voice and orchestra in perfect relationship and everything sharply defined, the old methods of the 1960s have nothing to fear here from today’s competition. These two old recordings will never be thrust aside; the Walter for its authority and intensity, the feeling of being present on a historic occasion, the Klemperer for its insistent strength and beautiful singing.
Additional Recommendations
Coupled with Three Rückert-Lieder
Kathleen Ferrier contr *Julius Patzak ten Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra / Bruno Walter
Decca 466 576-2DM or Naxos 8 110871 (76‘ · ADD) Recorded 1952. Buy from Amazon
The 1952 Walter will never lose its place at the heart of any review of Das Lied recordings. Walter obtains even richer, more impassioned, more pointed playing from the Vienna Philharmonic than in 1936 in, of course, improved sound. With his disciple Ferrier as alto soloist, her songs are richly, warmly voiced, and taken, particularly in the finale, to the limits of emotional involvement. Few have attempted to identify so completely with the work’s ethos of farewell and its thoughts of eternity. Ferrier envelops one to the core of one’s being. The wholly idiomatic and wonderfully expressive Patzak is the near-ideal tenor.
Coupled with Brahms Alto Rhapsody
Kathleen Ferrier contr Richard Lewis ten Hallé Orchestra / Sir John Barbirolli
APR mono APR5579 (77’ · ADD). Buy from Amazon
Ferrier is in even fuller, finer voice here than for Walter, with a richer, more expansive canvas painted by the Hallé and that most passionate of Mahlerians, Barbirolli. Restricted sound.
Janet Baker mez Waldemar Kmentt ten Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra / Rafael Kubelík
Audite AUDITE95 491 (62’ · ADD). Buy from Amazon
No survey could be without Janet Baker’s sensitive, heartfelt response to the long final ‘Farewell’: in Kmentt she finally has a partner who is almost her equal and, in concert, Kubelík finds new expressive heights and depths.
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau bar James King ten Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra / Leonard Bernstein
Decca 466 381-2DM (67’ · ADD). Buy from Amazon
If you want Mahler’s sanctioned alternative, with a baritone singing the mezzo songs, this is a first choice: Fischer-Dieskau’s vast experience in Lieder is telling here, and so are King’s credentials as a Wagnerian.
