September 11, 2007
Das Klagende Lied
The Mahler cycle must go on. Expanded from the original scope of recording the symphonies to include, well, pretty much any orchestral work by Mahler, the cycle now welcomes the addition of das klagende Lied, released today. Technically speaking, it is not a new recording: it’s a remastering of the 1997 recording, re-issued under the SF Symphony label. The cover art has been updated, from a MTT in a black turtleneck with wavy hair to, well, MTT in a black turtleneck with wavy hair. MTT looks a bit thinner nowadays, a favor that those ten years did not grant us.
Das klagende Lied is a three movement cantata, in which two brothers set out to find a flower that we'll allow one of them to marry a princess. The kind brother finds it, upon which the evil one goes all OJ on him to steal the flower and the promised bride. Part II sees a minstrel finding one of the slain brother's bones, and making a flute of it, which sings the tale of part I. Oh sorrow, woe! Oh, sorrow! indeed. The musician rushes to the princess' castle in part III, whereupon the remaining brother plays with the fateful flute, and brings upon more sorrow and more woe.
More after the jump
We cannot really judge the remastering of the performance: we don’t have the original. We went to Joshua Kosman’s review and we found this, at the time of the original release with RCA (full text here).
Thomas has said that he hears the score's almost obsessive shifts in tone and mood as a reflection of a dynamic and unpredictable narrative voice -- perhaps that of a Jewish grandmother. Not least of the virtues of the new CD … is that he makes that case pretty persuasively in musical terms.
What's most arresting about the performance, in fact, is not so much the
luminous playing by the orchestra, or the evocative, detailed singing of the Symphony Chorus, though those are both deeply impressive. It's the sheer narrative drive with which Thomas imbues the work -- the way more than an hour's worth of music is made to cohere into a single remarkable tale whose individual splendors contribute to the flow rather than impeding it.
This is not to say that there isn't an air of remedial work about the project; one feels on listening to the CD that Thomas has found more cohesion in the score than Mahler put there.
The singing, too, is of variable quality, with soprano Marina Shaguch sounding particularly vinegary and only Michelle DeYoung managing to sing her part with both confidence and tonal allure (the other singers are tenor Thomas Moser and baritone Sergei Leiferkus). But overall, this remains a gripping and often revelatory
account.
What struck us listening to the CD is how little things have changed in ten years: we recognized MTT’s muscular interpretation that we’d hear again in, say the Mahler 5th symphony, and his comments to Kosman in the CD review seem still to apply to his take on Mahler today. Even Kosman’s writing style (which we admire a lot) seems to have always had the polish that we so appreciate now.
The remastering might have sweetened Shaguch’s tone, as we did not find her voice particularly sour. We are also a bit warmer regarding Thomas Moser’s performance. In any case, this recording is still one of the references for that particular Mahler piece.
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What is this? Actual culture on sfist? Excuse me, I think I will faint.
I do have a question about MTT's Mahler CDs. Why are they so expensive? At Amoeba Records I saw the recording of the 5th for $26!
Das Klegende Lied. People Died.
JWB, they are in some kind of fancy, improved high-def format. Don't ask me the specifics, but that's the idea.
RRoseslavy: oh my god, that so badly should be the title of this post!