'live' DLvdE w/ Ferrier/Patzak/Walter/VPO (Ferrier: I just don't get it)

[barry guerrero]

http://www.amazon.com/Walter-Vienna-Recordings-Mahler-Symphony/dp/B000I0SEIM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1399095383&sr=8-1&keywords=3030257450416

In an effort to try to have a more 'balanced' opinion towards historical recordings, I picked up this new Andromeda (Archipel) release which has the 'live' 1952 Walter "DLvdE", along with the 1955 Vienna Mahler 4 with Hilde Gueden, soprano. I'm pretty sure that it was this Hilde Gueden one that DG had released in a box dedicated to great VPO performances (I should have bought that box).

Anyway, I've always heard that the 'live' performance was actually better than the famous studio recording. For whatever the reasons, I pretty much agree (for starters, the old Decca sound quality was pretty harsh). But Ferrier    .    .    .    geez, I guess it's just a matter of taste. Everyone makes such a big deal that she was a true contralto. Nowhere did Mahler specify that the low voice needed to be a contralto, or that the male low voice needed to be a bass-baritone. Really, I just don't get it, as Ferrier's vibrato is just completely off-the-hook. Also, if you look at the dynamic markings in the score, Ferrier frequently over-sings. Perhaps even more to the point, if there ever was a composer who simply does not benefit from the limited sonics of historical performances, it's Gustav Mahler. That's to say nothing of the momentary lapses in tuning and togetherness on the part of the VPO (that oboe!). This much I'll certainly grant: it ain't boring! However, at times, it's interesting in just the wrong sort of way.

I haven't listened to the 1955 Mahler 4 yet, but I remember liking the DG issue of it very much. Funny, but Julius Patzak sometimes reminds me of Max Raabe!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlUPqR3Cy5c

Later on:  Indeed, the 1955 Mahler 4 is really good. Of course, the item where the VPO sounds most 'at home' is the Mozart 38th symphony. No surprise there.

[Prospero]

There is such a thing as soul in some performers. Certainly Lorraine Hunt-Lieberson, and for many Ferrier had it. I also find it in Christanne Stoytin. Bruno Walter knew more about Mahler than any of us, and he found great depth of feeling in Ferrier's singing.

The bias against historical recordings seems to elevate technology at any cost over musical understanding to a curious degree.

If we go that route, no recording has the "technical" impact of a good live performance. But a recording may capture important depths of music expression and insight. The recently discovered Horenstein Mahler 5 on Pristine is a case in point.

Best,

Tom in Vermont

[barry guerrero]

"The bias against historical recordings seems to elevate technology at any cost over musical understanding to a curious degree"

No. Stop. Not true. If anything, it's the other way around. The Archipel issue - or whatever label this is - sounds just fine. I have no real issues with the sound. Even the 1955 M4 sounds better than the better known 1950 one - good enough to just be, 'good enough'. In my case, I'm simply talking about Ferrier as a singer. I suspect that there's too much 'digging her' for sentimental reasons. For me, it might have something to do with vocal styles and techniques of the past, in comparison to today. That much I will concede. However, there are many blast-from-the-past singers who I like just fine, who come from a time of limited technology and generally 'crappy' sounding orchestras (whiney, oily, out-of-tune oboes are often times a prominent feature). Gigli certainly comes to mind - a great singer from a time of limited technology and awful sounding orchestras.

[David Boxwell]

Recent documentary film on KF (narrated by Charlotte Rampling) up on medici.tv notes how Walter painstakingly coached her to perform Mahler in a voice and approach different from her "English Oratorio" style, which was almost culturally ingrained in her.  Apparently, to some ears, he didn't fully succeed. . .

I think she's at her best in an off-air recording of DLvDE with Barbirolli and the Halle Orchestra on APR 5579 (from April 1952).  And Richard Lewis is easier on my ears than Patzak.