Your favorite Das Lied von der Erde?

[Vatz Relham]

I have this one but think the overall tempo is on a fast side, even faster than the Ormandy and Barenboim, two of my favorite DLVDE's. But as you said, the playing and sound are excellent.

John,

Yes, the tempo's are a little quick but I think Christianne Stotijn is a better singer in this work than Chakoosian and Meier, who are good but lack a lttle in involvment compared to Stotijn,
although the DVD with Meier / Bychkov is good and better than the CD with Maazel.

Vatz

[Leo K]

Hi Michael,

Regarding the Siegart/APO/Exton,  I have had a similar reaction.  I have only heard it twice, and appreciate it's excellant sound but feel I need more listens to give a better review.  I have a feeling it's going to grow in stature the more I listen though...I feel this is a "grower" rather than an immediate grabber.  Both singers are very fine and subtle.

--Leo

Guys,

Have you listened again to the Sieghart Das Lied?
I think the recording is excellent, with a few minor reservations:

The tenor Donald Litaker has a tendancy to over do it, almost as if he was singing an operatic role which causes his voice to fad in and out in a few places as he moves in and away from the mic.
The entrance of the lads on galloping horses in Of Beauty is a bit slow, similar to Boulez and Bychkov.
Der Abschied is a little too quick, it could use a little more slowing down near the end, time 28:14

Now the good points:
Litaker does sing very well and clearly understands the text.
Christianne Stotijn is really wonderfull to my ears, she has a beautifull tone, warm and clear, closer to an alto then a mezzo which is what Mahler calls for,
and excellent control over her vibrato, no out of control wobble here, she also sings with much feeling I think.
This is the first recording I have heard of the Arnhem Phil. Orch, which is quite impressive, and only the 2nd one conducted by Martin Sieghart, the other being the S/M M10 pirate CD.
The sound is first rate, very clear and natural, (listened to CD) with good balances between the voices and orchestra,
all the small details of percussion in Of youth (cymbals with bass drum) and in Of Beauty are very good.
Sieghart has the mandolin play muted which actually sounds natural that way in Der Abschied even if Mahler does not mark it that way, in some recordings it's too tiny and old fashioned sounding.
The tam-tam as clearly audible with a nice deep tone, especially the two at the end of the funeral march of the finale.

For me this is one of the best recordings of this work I have heard in a while, along with Bertini, Reiner, Kubelik, Klemperer, Haitink, Giulini, Walter-NYPO, Sanderling, Bychkov, Bernstein-VPO.

Vatz

Vatz, I have this recording and I agree with your review...I like this performance alittle more each time I listen.  I actually really like the faster tempos, and on SACD this is probably the best sounding Dlvde (along with the new Reiner Das Lied on SACD) I've heard.  A good sounding Dlvde makes all the difference to me.

--Todd

[barry guerrero]

I don't know if the Bertini with Marjana Lipovsek & Ben Heppner got mentioned yet. That's really good. It's quite expensive, but the live Giulini/VPO (Orfeo) one from the Salzburg Festival is something special. That one has the same cast as his DG studio one: Fassbaender & Araiza. I really like the Reference Recordings "DLvdE" with Eiji Oue; Minnestoa Orchestra, and Michelle De Young/Jon Villars. At the escastic outburst near the end of "Der Abschied", De Young actually attempts to sing all that high tessitura stuff softly - just as Mahler indicates! It also has the best sound quality of any of them, and that's rather important with the orchestral writing. Don't forget Sinopoli/Staatskapelle Dresden (DG) if you want to hear some gorgeous, yet precise orchestral playing (Iris Vermillion/Keith Lewis). And with that other Lewis - Richard Lewis - don't forget the recent reissue of Reiner/CSO/Maureen Forrester (RCA). All of these are well worth owning.

[chalkpie]

Trying to revive a dead horse here.........


I own:

Rattle/CBSO
Bernstein/Vienna
Klemperer/NPO

Like them all, but I need more.

What is the best-sounding recent digital account of Das lied?

[Russell]

As Barry indicated above, the best DLVDE in terms of quality of recorded sound is the Oue/Minnesota on Reference Recordings, and I concur.  (It also helps that the performance is good, too.)  My favorite recording for performance, though, remains the Klemperer on EMI--no other singer comes close to Fritz Wunderlich in the tenor songs.  And EMI's sound quality (remastered in the Great Recordings of the Century series) is excellent.  (Though I've read that the Japanese version is even better.)

Russell

[stillivor]

This'll be an interesting thread after next Saturday's Building a Library comparisons [radio 3, BBC] of the available versions.

    Ivor

[Karafan]

The one the reviewer plumped for was Horenstein, 1972 vintage, with Alfreda Hodgson, John Mitchinson, (BBC Northern SO / Horenstein BBC Legends).

Thoughts?

Karafan

(Also posted on the thread centering on the BBC Radio 3 Building a Library Review started by Ivor).

[akiralx]

The one the reviewer plumped for was Horenstein, 1972 vintage, with Alfreda Hodgson, John Mitchinson, (BBC Northern SO / Horenstein BBC Legends).

Thoughts?

Not Tony Duggan doing the survey was it...

[Karafan]

No, it was one of my favourite reviewers, Stephen Johnson.

[Tom B.]

I'd still have to go with the Bruno Walter/Kathleen Ferrier/VPO Das Lied.

All I listen to is vinyl. The UK Decca pressing is gorgeous. I'm quite aware of all of the the negative aspects folks rant about concerning this performance, but it doesn't persuade me to change my opinion concerning this performance as being transcendental.

Tom B.  (my 1st posting)http://cgi.audioasylum.com/systems/134.html

[barry guerrero]

Sorry, not I. I much prefer the stereo Columbia one. I also feel that the '36 Walter/VPO "DLvdE" with Kirstin Thorburg is superior to the Ferrier one in pretty much every respect except dynamic range. Even the playing is somewhat better.

[jeighson]

I am now of the opinion that the Semyon Bychkov Das Lied is the greatest one ever recorded.  It is available on the Waltraud Meier Documentary DVD "I Follow a Voice Within Me", but make no mistake, Das Lied is the main attraction here.  Perhaps it has yet to be discovered by the Mahler community at large, because I have heard basically zero mention of it on the mahler-board, -list and review sites, which is why I am taking the time to draw attention to it.

If you have heard Bychkov's wonderful M3, this DLVDE should be self-recommending.  Bychkov's style is reminiscent of Bernstein, but he's even better.  It's a very theatrical, dramatic reading, but this is achieved with perfect tempi, perrfect pacing, really getting the pulse of each movement, as opposed to to unearned, momentary indulgences and tricks.

Bychkov leads both soloists to outdo themselves as well.   Tenor Torsten Kerl reminds me of King from the Bernstein recording.  And yet here we have a female soloist--surely the way this piece is best heard--of equal calibre to match.

Sound is ideal, very detailed, but not idiosyncratically so.  Bychkov gets much of the credit for this as well.

[barry guerrero]

Boy, I don't know if I'd ever call the Bychkov one, "the greatest". I'd say that that's kind of a stretch. But it is quite good. Then again, if you like the controlled playing of the Cologne musicians, you'd probably like the Bertini one as well. To my mind, Lipovsek and Heppner are an even better team. But there's certainly nothing wrong with the Bychkov one either.

I do like his M3 as well, although it's a rather expansive (long) performance. But it's done quite well. The sound is excellent too.

[chalkpie]

Classics Today gives the 1975 Haitink/RCO/Baker/King a 10/10, which is fine and maybe true. But the last sentence has me scratching my head in bewilderment, and I quote:

"This is the only Das Lied you'll ever need, and the recorded sound is of demonstration quality--superior, even, to the new Reference Recordings version with De Young, Villars, and the Minnesota Orchestra under Eiji Oue, released earlier in 2000."--Michael Jameson

Better sound than the Minnesota/Oue? Wow. Is this a healthy dose of hyperbole or is this recording really, really, really STELLAR in the sound department because the Reference Recording version sonically is pretty much as good as it gets to these ears.

What's the deal?

[Russell]

I haven't done a head-to-head comparison, but that Philips DLVDE sounds awfully good. Philips in the mid-late 70's made some real demonstration-quality recordings, especially with Haitink and the Concertgebouw. Things started to decline with the advent of digital in the late 70's/early 80's.... 

Russell