Search - Gustav Mahler, Leonard Bernstein, Concertgebouw Orchestra :: Mahler: Des Knaben Wunderhorn

Late, sluggish Bernstein

Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 09/27/2005

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Bernstein had his say in this song cycle in NY with Christa Ludwig and Walter Berry in top form. This DG remake some years later finds Andreas Schmidt in gorgeous voice, and he does the best job with Bernstein's tempi, now eccentrically slow by any measure. Lucia Popp's lyric-colorature soprano had darkened with age, and she sounds too mature and vocally unsure much of the time, wonderful artist though she is.



Ultimately this is Bernstein's show, and if you don't mind things being taken like molasses in winter, not to mention the accomanying attempt to overblow each song emotionally, there are good things to hear on this CD. These are all exceptional artists, after all."