Search - Gustav Mahler, Janet Baker, Geoffrey Parsons :: Mahler's Songs of Youth

A great recording of Mahler's early songs

L. Johan Modée | Earth | 10/25/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"For Lieder enthusiasts and Mahleríte collectors, this recording is an essential disc. We have Janet Baker, one of the greatest Mahler mezzo soprano vocalists ever, interpreting Mahler's early songs for solo voice, up to 1890. With the attentive and skilled Geoffrey Parsons at the piano, the performances leave little to wish.



The disc contains the song cycle "Lieder Eines Fahrenden Gesellen", the collection "Lieder and Gesänge `aus der Jugendzeit'", and three additional early Lieders, which is all that has survived of Mahler's youth compositions for voice and piano.



Moreover, sound quality is very fine.



A great recording with great music."

Flawed by an aging voice

Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 10/01/2005

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I'm glad there is an excellent recording of these songs by Thomas Hampson, becasue my expectations for this one were disappointed. Janet Baker is a great Mahler singer--of that there is no doubt--and her interpretations here are up to her high standard. But the voice had frayed with age by the time this recording was made, and there is a disturbing wobble and strain in most of the songs. I wanted to go along for the sake of her art, but I couldn't.



P.S.--A year after writing this review, I succumbed and bought this CD for the second time. The vocal flaws I mentioned are mostly in the upper register, and there is no female singer to equal Baker in this repertoire. A question: Why are these marvelous early songs by Mahler so under-recorded?"