Zinman's "Das Lied"

[David Boxwell]

Zinman completes his cycle with DLVDE, with Elsner and Graham.  It's up on Spotify, where I heard it.  I'd be interested to know what others think of it.

[Dal Segno]

Well recorded, well played, as is usual for Zinmans cycle, but lacking commitment and strangely sterile, as is usual for Zinmans cycle. I found the tenor distinctly second-rate and Graham only adequate. Albrecht with Coote and Fritz with the Netherlands Philharmonic on Pentatone is much better. But that's just one mans opinion..

[barry guerrero]

I believe that there's another posting where this was covered more. I've only heard samples of it. The orchestral playing sounded fine to me, but clearly the two singers are far short of being ideal. Graham is not particularly good on the disc of Mahler lieder with Tilson-Thomas and the S.F. Symphony either. It just might be that German music just isn't her thing. The tenor - if I'm permitted to use this word - pretty much sucks.

While Coote is very good, I'm not a huge fan of the Albrecht recording on Pentatone. For one thing, there really is a shortage of tam-tam throughout the funereal orchestral interlude in "Abschied". I'm also not a huge fan of Albrecht's conducting. And as great as the Pentatone sound is (very 'open'), I find the upper strings just a tad 'glassy' sounding. Among more recent vintage that employs a mezzo or contralto, I prefer the London Phil./Nezet-Seguin one. Tenor Toby Spence is great, and Connolly is no slouch either. But really, there are tons of older "DLvdE" that are truly great.

[David Boxwell]

Elsner appeared on Fischer-Diskau's version (as conductor) back in 1996 (on Orfeo), so I will compare the two to see if he's in better shape when he was younger.  Graham has some lovely notes still, but agreed: this is a relatively tentative rendition by all concerned.

[SteelyTom]

Here's a link to a review of the SACD from Down Under-- it does a nice job describing what Zinman et al. seek to do in the Mahler (which may or may not be your cup of tea where Das Lied is concerned): 
http://www.limelightmagazine.com.au/Review/388069,mahler-das-lied-von-der-erde-tonhalle-orchestra/zinman.aspx

[barry guerrero]

It's definitely a better Mahler cycle than most people think. Many people freak-out at the inclusion of Clinton Carpenter's completion of the 10th symphony, but why would we need yet another Cooke version (personally, I'd like another conductor's take on Samale/Mazzuca)? The problem in some of the recordings, including this "DLvdE", is that the vocals aren't the best (Birgit Remmert is really good on M3 though).

 In addition, they are generally low level recordings, which means that you need to put extra gain on your volume knob to compensate. If you don't turn up low level recordings, they can sound quite dull. That aspect has nothing to do with what the person standing on the podium and waving the stick is doing. You can criticize that in terms of decisions made at the engineering console, usually with some input from the conductor. But just speaking for myself, I like the extra clarity at loud peaks that are the 'plus' side of low level recordings. The endings of M7 and M8 are great examples of that on the Zinman cycle. Also, I really like the acoustics of that hall.

[SteelyTom]

They're great-sounding recordings.  And as for the latest and last Mahler release in the cycle, how often does one of the so-called major labels issue a new, DSD-recorded SACD?  It's almost an exercise in nostalgia to buy the album.