Search - Gustav Mahler, Helmuth Kolbe, Pierre Boulez :: Pierre Boulez: Mahler, Das Klagende Lied

Out of print, but this could be Boulez's best Mahler

Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 08/07/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Mahler was amazingly precocious to have written this hour-long 'fairy tale for the concert hall,' which is already rife with his future musical style. At the time (1880) nobody appreciated the teenage genius--he began the work when he was 18--because the premiere of Das klagende Lied didn't take place for more than twenty years. Boulez approaches the work as a 'novelistic sketch' of everything to come. That's the secret of this performance--Boulez gives it as much energy and conviciton as he would to a great Mahler symphony.



I'm grateful to 'Mahlernut' for pointing out this overlooked 1970 recording. The lineup of soloists is twice the usual, becasue after recording Part 2 and 3, Boulez returned to the studio with new singers to record Part 1 later on. If you want to hear the work as authorized by Mahler, only Part 2 and 3 belong to the final score. The discarded Part 1 is more diffuse and less dramatic, but any lover of Mahler will still want to hear it.



I am not an expert on Klagende Lied, but I notice that for all the great Mahler conductors who have avoided it as a juvenile work (Bernstein, Karajan, Abbado, Walter, Horenstein) there are a handful of enthusiasts (Chailly, Tilson Thomas, Haitink, Sinopoli, Nagano) who have promoted it on CD. The Gramophone's standard recommendation is the Chailly on Decca, but given how well the present CD is recorded, how splendid all the singing and playing is, and how committed Boulez sounds, I'm happy to stick with his wonderful preformance."