Search - Mahler, Norman, Vickers :: Das Lied Von Der Erde

Solid rendition

peederj | San Francisco, CA USA | 08/10/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This is actually quite a fine rendition of this utterly outstanding composition...very much as important and spectacular as Mahler's other symphonies.



However, it won't replace my current favorite recording of this symphonic song cycle (whose title means "the Song of the Earth"), with Otto Klemperer conducting Christa Ludwig and Fritz Wunderlich on EMI. Now that _will_ give you goosebumps!"

Interesting and memorable, but nobody's first choice

montecastello | 01/19/2007

(3 out of 5 stars)

"This is an odd recording of the piece. Davis lightens it considerably, bringing new instrumental colors to the fore, but in the end it just isn't Mahler--too much is missing. Norman's voice suits the music wonderfully and it's a pleasure to hear her in it, even if she's only slightly less cold and marmoreal than usual. Like a number of Norman's recordings you listen to it to imagine how it might have sounded if she could have forgotten her glacial dignity for a few minutes. Vickers sounds worn (I don't think it's a question of his blustering or bullying as much as that he was simply no spring chicken--his Siegmund heard live sounded a lot like this by this time, too.) But for me the undeniable roughness adds a sort of fervency all too absent elsewhere in this recording. His "dunkel is das leben" is a real cry, a sort of challenge more than a simple lament. I accept the fact that my opinion here is eccentric, but in spite of its limitations, this is one of the recordings of this work that I do occasionally come back to from time to time. Klemperer and Walter with Patzak and Ferrier are my prefered versions."