Search - Mahler, Seiffert, Hampson :: Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde

Good in the details, but not quite convincing as a whole

Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 09/17/2005

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I expected a lot from this recording and rushed to buy it on its initial release in 1997. I don't really prfer the baritone option for the lower voice -- Bruno Walter, who premiered Das Lied, suggested that Mahler would have dropped this alternative in the end -- and unfortunately Hampson isn't at his best, nowhere nearly as expressive as the great mezzos and altos in this part. He sounds sensitive, mellifluous, and fussy instead of deeply involved.



Rattle doesn't seem to catch on to Das Lied, either, when compared to the great conductors like Walter and Klemperer, who were echt Mahlerians. He attends to every detail, but thre's a sense of rush at times and not enough true feeling -- where is the music's world-weariness, for example? the whole thing is too bright and one-dimensional. Peter Seiffrt's intelligent, idiomatic singing turns out to be the high point. I'm sure he needs the microphone to carry over Mahler's huge orchestra, but that's no more than can be said of Fritz Wunderlich on Klemperer's famous EMI recording form the Sixties. Seiffert's involvement shows up Hampson's relative detachment. Finally, we mst consider the City of Birmingham orchestra, which stuggles gamely to cope with Mahler's virtuosic demands but achieves only a partial success.



In all, a reading with good parts that don't add up to a successful whole."