The Song Of The Earth, I: The Drinking Song Of Earth's Misery
The Song Of The Earth, II: Autumn Loneliness
The Song Of The Earth, III: Youth
The Song Of The Earth, IV: Beauty
The Song Of The Earth, V: The Drunkard In Spring
The Song Of The Earth, VI: The Farewell
Jascha Horenstein on 'The Song Of The Earth' - Jascha Horenstein
These days the prospect of Mahler performances is unlikely to make even enthusiasts hold their breath, which is why performances of this vintage and, most importantly, this quality are always welcome. Jascha Horenstein's M... more »ahler credentials were established in the early 1920s, and this 1972 studio account of Das Lied von der Erde, his last Mahler performance, draws on his half-century of performance-practice in a profoundly moving experience. At a shade under 68 minutes, it's also among the slowest, but such is Horenstein's control over fine detail and the broader span that he never risks losing focus. The BBC Northern Symphony Orchestra rises to the challenge with total dedication. John Mitchinson is at times overstretched but always heroic in his contribution, while Alfreda Hodgson brings the simplicity and warmth that were hallmarks of all her Mahler performances. The closing 10 minutes of the final song, "Der Abschied," seem to reach out and draw the listener into its confidence--something to be cherished in music as transcendent as this. Whatever accounts of this work you already have, Horenstein's is an essential addition. --Richard Whitehouse« less
These days the prospect of Mahler performances is unlikely to make even enthusiasts hold their breath, which is why performances of this vintage and, most importantly, this quality are always welcome. Jascha Horenstein's Mahler credentials were established in the early 1920s, and this 1972 studio account of Das Lied von der Erde, his last Mahler performance, draws on his half-century of performance-practice in a profoundly moving experience. At a shade under 68 minutes, it's also among the slowest, but such is Horenstein's control over fine detail and the broader span that he never risks losing focus. The BBC Northern Symphony Orchestra rises to the challenge with total dedication. John Mitchinson is at times overstretched but always heroic in his contribution, while Alfreda Hodgson brings the simplicity and warmth that were hallmarks of all her Mahler performances. The closing 10 minutes of the final song, "Der Abschied," seem to reach out and draw the listener into its confidence--something to be cherished in music as transcendent as this. Whatever accounts of this work you already have, Horenstein's is an essential addition. --Richard Whitehouse
CD Reviews
Finally....out in decent sound
Neil Ford | London | 06/21/2000
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I tried all the "classic" Das Lieds and until I heard Horenstein, the work didn't quite add up; something was wrong: the Abschied didn't feel final or eternal (ewig). Its hard to put into words, but it you look closely at the score, and follow it while listening to Klemperer or Walter, you notice the occassional transgression from Mahler's very detailed markings. Repeating the exercise with Horenstein explained my problems with the other accounts of this work. The conductor, orchestra and soloist follow the score to the letter and so much new and important detail surfaces from previous obfuscation.If you care to quibble about the soloists and orchestra not being the most well known of their day then don't buy this CD, but you are missing out. The BBC Northern and Horenstein had very generous studio time to congeal their interpretations and it shows so clearly on this disc...none of your "fly in, 2 takes, fly out" approach to record making. Thanks Heavens for Horenstein's perfectionism on this occassion !The Soloists have had very distinguished careers in the UK and abroad and are totally sypathetic to their elderly conductor, the inspiration of the music challenging them all to new heights of expression. Alfreda Hodgson in particular is the one soloist on disc who sings the Abscheid with such tenderness, and in observing Mahler's dynamics so carefully achieves the emotional balance this movement craves and rarely gets.So yet another legend from the BBC treasure trove. Mahler 6 with the Bournemouth SO next please dear old Auntie..."
Extraordinary
Andrew M. Klein | Washington, DC USA | 06/09/2001
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I've listened to this performance only once to date. It impressed me so much on that first hearing, however, that it may just replace the justly famed Walter/Ferrier performance in my heart -- including the remastered version now available. What overwhelms me is how much sense it makes to take much of this work at the somewhat slower tempi Horenstein chooses. That permits us to hear, in extraordinary detail, the perfectly wonderful, separate, independent, but not-so-independent-after all, lines of the orchestral parts with penetrating clarity. Through that, the emotion and meaning of this immortal composition are more effectively communicated than in any other version I've heard. Mahler's genius is in part a function of his polyphony, his command of coutnerpoint, and his amazing use of more instruments in more ways than any predecessor ever considered. This recording lets you hear it all. It will help keep Das Lied alive as a source of wonder."
For the cliche island
Jonathan Goldberg | St. Louis, Mo. | 05/04/2004
(5 out of 5 stars)
"There are many fine Das Lieds; Hitink//Baker, Klemperer, Walter/Ferrier come immediately to mind. After those, and many others, this one was a revelation. No one else gets so deeply into the score, probing both its terrors and its beauties. I'd hate to be without those I mentioned earlier; but it I can have only one, this is it. I gave it five stars, but it's worth more.Horenstein was Mahlerian royalty; it's a great pity that no one gave him a top orchestra with which to record the complete cycle. We make do with what we have."
The Mahler that Furt would have played
lampros | 06/15/2000
(4 out of 5 stars)
"JH is a furtwangler's pupil who did conduct Mahler ( Furt and Celibidache, another famous furt's pupil, avoided to conduct Mahler) and you can feel this furtwanglerian style everywhere. Although this Mahler it's not that good as the extraordinary Mahler 8 also released by BBC, this one is also a MUST for any serious Mahler collector"
HIGHLY RECOMMENDABLE
Klingsor Tristan | Suffolk | 10/01/2009
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Horenstein was one of the great Mahlerians, one who was part of that great tradition going back to Mahler's own performances that included Bruno Walter and Otto Klemperer. I learned much of my Mahler from Horenstein in the early 60's when performances - and, indeed, recordings - were still pretty rare. One couldn't have asked for a better teacher. Thanks to this BBC label we now have a live Horenstein performance of the Seventh and his pioneering performance of the Eighth to add to the better-known recordings of Symphonies 1, 3, 6 and 9. But this BBC live recording of Das Lied von der Erde from Manchester in 1972 near the end of his life is something even more special.
It is perhaps one of the most symphonic of all performances of Das Lied. If one regards Das Lied as a proper symphony that Mahler was too superstitious to give the number 9 to, then the Trinklied opening movement is a classic sonata-form 1st movement (admittedly with strophic elements, too): the second, Einsame im Herbst, is the slow movement: there follows a trio of lighter, scherzo-like movements (just as in the 3rd Symphony): and the Abschied is the summating and consummating finale.
Horenstein takes the opening movement at a slightly more measured pace than most, as perhaps befits the first movement of a what he sees as a fully-fledged symphony. He is well over a minute (or 10%) slower than either Walter or Klemperer. But this tempo makes for a really dark and dramatic reading and allows the grinding and clashing heterophony of both the harmonies and the expert orchestration to build to a shattering climax with the terrifying picture of the ape gibbering in the graveyard.
The Slow Movement shows Horenstein fully aware that these are Chinese poems, viewed through Viennese eyes. While the opening, with its moto perpetuo strings meandering apparently at will and with the counterpoints of woodwind and then voice completely detached and providing the harmony, its seems, simply where it falls, retains a kind of Zen-like objectivity. But, whenever warmth creeps into the string writing and eventually makes for a surprisingly full climax at Fig 18, `Sonne der Liebe', there is an almost Viennese lilt and certainly passion in the interpretation.
The delicate porcelain chinoiserie of the 3rd Movement, again a little steadier than usual, and the open-air freshness of the girls picking their flowers allow for real charm to enter the music. And the arrival of the boys on horseback, again a little slower than many other conductors, never degenerates into a meaningless gabble, but retains elegance, shape and proportion. And the accelerando leading up to that moment is wonderfully purposeful and controlled.
The Drunkard in Spring has an appropriate wildness and abandon that looks back to the second trio of the Scherzo in the Resurrection Symphony and forward to the Rondo-Burleske of the Ninth. Here Mahler's wonderful orchestration (doubly wonderful when you remember that he never heard the work played through) is brilliantly balanced by Horenstein to allow both the drunken character of the movement and its rigorously organised counterpoints to shine through.
So we come to the long, final Adagio of the Abschied. Horenstein crowns his performance here with a magnificently sustained and concentrated piece of conducting. The whole shape of the movement seems to be always clear in his mind, yet he always has the precise `tempo juste', the right instrumental balance, the right colour for each individual moment. The loneliness of the isolated birdsongs with their chromatically slithering tails, the movement insinuated into the music by the brook singing `full of melody in the darkness', the harsh harmonic clashes and the profound undertow of the descending diminished fourths in the great funeral march, and the weightless, timeless ending drifting into infinity on its unresolved harmony, all are perfectly realised by conductor and orchestra. In his fascinating insert notes, Horenstein's assistant, Joel Lazar, says that the conductor follows the composer's instructions by beating the whole of the very slow last 120 bars (except a couple) with a time-suspending one-in-a-bar.
I have concentrated so far on the conductor and ignored the singers because I feel this is very much his and his orchestra's performance. Suffice to say that his soloists don't let him down. Mitchinson, never my favourite voice I have to admit, takes a while to get in his stride in the first song. He is a bit haphazard with note-values and ornaments at first, but improves later. And his hefty heldentenor doesn't have quite the delicacy for the third song. But his Drunkard in Spring is one of the best you'll hear - he fully catches the wildness of Horenstein's conducting and his tipsy colloquy with the bird in the tree is a joy.
Alfreda Hodgson, on the other hand, is throughout in the highest bracket. Hers is a true alto with a deep rich lower register that is absolutely right for this music so often sung nowadays by mezzos and above. She is right in the Kathleen Ferrier mould, than which there can be no higher praise. Just listen to the way she colours her voice as she approaches the climax of Der Einsame in Herbst. Or to the character she brings to those girls plucking their flowers and so rudely interrupted by the alluring young riders. Just listen to any part of the Abschied, but particularly the ethereal ending, to be deeply and profoundly moved.
This recording has just been chosen by the BBC's CD Review as their Building a Library recommendation for Das Lied. Loath though I would be to part with some of the other recordings of the work (especially Ferrier with Walter or Barbirolli and Janet Baker with Kempe) I wouldn't disagree with that recommendation."
Track Listings (7) - Disc #1