yet another new "DLvdE" with Robert Dean Smith

[barryguerrero]

At least Jurowski is conducting:  https://www.hmv.co.jp/en/artist_Mahler-1860-1911_000000000019272/item_Das-Lied-von-der-Erde-Vladimir-Jurowski-Berlin-Radio-Symphony-Orchestra-Sarah-Connolly-Robert-Dean-Smith_11023988

[erikwilson7]

I liked Sarah Connolly on Das Lied with Nézet-Séguin/LSO. At least I think it was her...

Robert Dean Smith is the new Stuart Skelton, doing a recording of Das Lied every chance he gets. I haven’t formed an opinion on him yet.

[barryguerrero]

L.P.O.  It's part of their in-house series of recordings.

[erikwilson7]

Oh right, it was the LPO. Thanks.

[barryguerrero]

Oh, I forgot to mention:  I think the Nezet-Seguin/L.P.O. "DLvdE" is quite good.

[erikwilson7]

I just gave this a listen.

It’s okay, not great to me. The first song suffers from strained singing, but the rest of the work goes just fine. Nothing really stood out to me as being excellent, not even Jurowski’s conducting which surprised me.

Overall a cool, unexiciting release in dry but highly detailed sound. The orchestral contribution is lovely. The very end was quite beautiful with prominent twinkling celesta and mandolins (which I look out for). Could have used a larger, darker tam-tam throughout. Not much character to it... to the whole recording really. This is a very average Das Lied, which can be okay.

[brunumb]

Totally agree with everything you said erikwilson7.

[barryguerrero]

I'm sorry to hear that, because Jurowski's London Phil. Mahler and Tchaikovsky have all seem quite good to me.

[erikwilson7]

Agreed, Barry. To me all of Jurowski’s previous Mahler has been fantastic. He even has a very good live video of Das klagende Lied in the Berlin Phil’s Digital Concert Hall app (with a boy soprano!)

I don’t think Jurowski is bad in any way here. He just doesn’t take his usual risks that always tend to pay off, so it’s a very normal interpretation if that makes sense. It doesn’t have the usual Jurowski flair.

It doesn’t help that the singing is uninspired. Not bad, but just detached. It’s okay to be cool in the middle songs, but the first and last songs, to me, need some letting go to really convince.

[David Boxwell]

Edward Seckerson praises this recording to the skies in the September 2020 issue of "Gramophone," considering it in the same breath as Bruno Walter (live NY, 1948) and Klemperer (65).

He especially lauds RDS, without mentioning his previous recording.

[erikwilson7]

Oh, Seckerson.

I don't see the value in comparing this 2020 recording to one that's from 1948. Yes, they are wonderful to revisit, but too much has changed in 72 years. We're currently in the middle of an entirely different musical aesthetic, postmodernism (or some even say we're post-postmodernism), and the way conductors and performers approach and interpret music is so different today. Even the way people listen to music is completely different than it was in 1948. In the height of late modernism, it's no doubt that Wunderlich's emotional and expressionistic approach made a splash. I don't believe that RDS was even trying to sound like Wunderlich or Patzak. My point is that it's a totally different approach to music-making and it's not really fair to compare.

Instead of holding the recordings of the past on a pedestal, I just find it more productive to compare the recordings of today to each other, or ones from the recent past. How does Jurowski compare to the recent Fischers and Rattle? How does RDS compare in his recent two? How does Stuart Skelton compare in his recent two? How does Skelton compare to RDS? I don't think any conductors and performers today are thinking, "I hope we do as well as the Klemperer recording." My way of looking at it is: how does this recordings compare to the Das Lied von der Erde of today?

On the Iván Fischer recording, RDS sounds totally different than the Jurowski! I won't say it's more expressive, but it is more controlled (less wobbly) and there is less dominating vibrato. It just goes to show that performers are intent on making their contemporary artistic stamp and not to compete with performers from 72 years ago.

[ChrisH]

Oh, Seckerson.

I don't see the value in comparing this 2020 recording to one that's from 1948. Yes, they are wonderful to revisit, but too much has changed in 72 years. We're currently in the middle of an entirely different musical aesthetic, postmodernism (or some even say we're post-postmodernism), and the way conductors and performers approach and interpret music is so different today. Even the way people listen to music is completely different than it was in 1948. In the height of late modernism, it's no doubt that Wunderlich's emotional and expressionistic approach made a splash. I don't believe that RDS was even trying to sound like Wunderlich or Patzak. My point is that it's a totally different approach to music-making and it's not really fair to compare.

Instead of holding the recordings of the past on a pedestal, I just find it more productive to compare the recordings of today to each other, or ones from the recent past. How does Jurowski compare to the recent Fischers and Rattle? How does RDS compare in his recent two? How does Stuart Skelton compare in his recent two? How does Skelton compare to RDS? I don't think any conductors and performers today are thinking, "I hope we do as well as the Klemperer recording." My way of looking at it is: how does this recordings compare to the Das Lied von der Erde of today?

On the Iván Fischer recording, RDS sounds totally different than the Jurowski! I won't say it's more expressive, but it is more controlled (less wobbly) and there is less dominating vibrato. It just goes to show that performers are intent on making their contemporary artistic stamp and not to compete with performers from 72 years ago.

I really like what you're saying here, Erin.

Wunderlich was also very closely mic'd in the Klemperer recording.

[erikwilson7]

Thanks, and again I really do like the old recordings! I just don’t think we should be comparing today’s releases to them. Eventually we have to draw a line somewhere.