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Track Listings
| 1. Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen | |||
| 2. F?nf Lieder nach Texten von Friedrich R?ckert | |||
| 3. Rheinlegendchen | |||
| 4. Ich ging mit Lust | |||
| 5. Fr?hlingsmorgen | |||
| 6. Abl÷sung im Sommer | |||
| 7. Wer hat dies Liedlein erdacht? | |||
| 8. I. Wenn mein Schatz Hochzeit macht | |||
| 9. II. Ging heut morgen ?ber's Feld | |||
| 10. III. Ich hab' ein gl?hend Messer | |||
| 11. IV. Die zwei blauen Augen | |||
| 12. Zu Stra?burg auf der Schanz | |||
| 13. Das irdische Leben | |||
| 14. Nicht wiedersehen | |||
| 15. Phantasie | |||
| 16. Wo die sch÷nen Trompeten blasen | |||
| 17. I. Blicke mir nicht in die Lieder | |||
| 18. II. Ich atmet' einen Lindenduft | |||
| 19. III. Um Mitternacht | |||
| 20. IV. Liebst du um Sch÷nheit | |||
See all 22 tracks on this disc
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Product Description
Review
This Mahler recital provokes comparisons with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Leonard Bernstein in many of the same songs back in 1968, and that’s already to pay the newcomer the highest of compliments. But Gerhaher’s eloquent sleeve notes take us back to Schumann and Schubert, and an approach to poetry that was barely alive when Mahler was writing his earliest songs. That’s partly what makes this early Mahler feel so natural with piano, but even in the songs conceived with orchestra, Gerhaher and Huber immerse you so successfully in their interior world that you barely register the orchestra’s absence.
The recital is beautifully planned, opening with the folksy simplicity of Rheinlegendchen, and a handful of songs that show Gerhaher to be more at ease with Mahler the rustic than Fischer-Dieskau, and with a more naturally beautiful tone and line. The four Wayfarer Songs introduce more emotional complexity, coloured with pain and sorrow, and Gerhaher’s lyric baritone deepens and darkens. The shadow of war looms over the next group; the eerie piano fanfares of Wo Die Schönen Trompeten Blasen (where the beautiful trumpets blow) are an alarm call as a soldier leaves his sweetheart, and Gerhaher conveys so much tenderness, and such piercing regret.
Then come Mahler’s five Rückert Songs, carefully reordered (they weren’t conceived as a cycle) to frame as their centrepiece what Gerhaher calls “the enigmatic, self-absorbed, and ultimately inscrutable Um Mitternacht” – the poet awake at midnight, bereft of all but the beating of his own heart: ‘one single pulse of agony’. Without orchestra, it’s stark and utterly devastating. And it’s left to Urlicht – the primal light from Mahler’s Second Symphony – to provide a glow of reassurance at the end of the recital.
Huber achieves pianistic miracles of colour and timing, and to call this a mature partnership barely begins to address the depth of their mutual understanding. The recording feels as truthful as the performances, and at a time when we seem to be overwhelmed by new recordings of Mahler’s symphonies, might I humbly suggest that this could be the finest Mahler you’ll hear all year? Absolutely essential. --Andrew McGregor
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
17 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
There is a plethora of recordings of Mahler's songs. Few great singers can resist the challenge of participating in one of the cycles or giving a solo recital. But this new entry is very special. Christian Gerhaber has the kind of velvety baritone admirably suited to these songs and his interpretation admirably accompanied by pianist Gerold Huber are highly sensitive. My own library is perhaps over-crowded with Mahler symphonies, song cycles and song recitals - but this is already a favorite.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
5 reviews
19 of 20 people found the following review helpful
Chacun a son gout... another knockout performance from a superb lieder duo
31 Dec 2009
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
Chacun a son gout... At the close of Santa Fe listener's appreciative but ultimately disparaging review, he queries, "Is this really the best that the new generation can do?" As a singer and musician myself, I feel very strongly that if these deeply emotional, imaginatively detailed performances are not the best ANY generation has done, then they certainly rank on a par with the greatest Mahler recordings of the past and present, among which I would number those of Ludwig, Berry, Fischer-Dieskau, and Quasthoff. In fact, I take issue with almost all of Santa Fe's points, from his disaffection for Mahler's masterfully evocative piano accompaniments to his characterizations of Gerhaher's and Huber's technical and interpretive choices. Make no mistake about it: we all hear with different ears, and no auditor can presume to absolute objectivity, understanding, or infallibility. That being said, my ears hear in Herr Gerhaher's singing (no less here than in his astonishing recordings of the three Schubert cycles) an EXCEPTIONALLY beautiful, charming, and, yes, distinctive voice, allied to a musical integrity and artistic sensibility of the very highest order. Indeed, in Schubert in particular, I would proclaim him one of the dozen or so finest lieder interpreters on record.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Astonishing beauty
23 Mar 2010
Format:Audio CD
You could pick these performances apart phrase by phrase, note by note, and you'd see how the magic is achieved. I think that, in this forum, for my purpose, detailed analysis is not what's called for. I'm not enjoying writing this. But I think the beauty and expressive power of these performances makes them so important that I must force myself.
Gerhaher has and gives everything: sweetness, metal - he even croons on occasion. He highlights and colors text by leaning on some words, glancing off others. Pianist Gerold Huber's instrument simultaneously gleams and sings. He makes the orchestral accompaniments superfluous. Gerhaher and Huber both give shape and contour to melody and clarity to texture. Their partnership is that of artists perfectly aligned toward expressing the poets, the composer, themselves, and, by extension, the listener. They remind me that I listen to this music because it has the power to mirror the content of my own heart.
I've been listening to this music for thirty years. Fischer-Dieskau's live recordings of the Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen with Furtwangler in Salzburg and with Leonard Bernstein's piano accompaniment are particular favorites. Among the younger generation I love Konrad Jarnott and Christopher Maltman. But I don't believe in "best" recordings. Great works can be superbly interpreted in many ways. I think a test -- if you really must apply a test -- of the validity of particular interpretations is how inevitable they sound when you're listening to them. When I listen to these, there are no others.
Gerhaher has and gives everything: sweetness, metal - he even croons on occasion. He highlights and colors text by leaning on some words, glancing off others. Pianist Gerold Huber's instrument simultaneously gleams and sings. He makes the orchestral accompaniments superfluous. Gerhaher and Huber both give shape and contour to melody and clarity to texture. Their partnership is that of artists perfectly aligned toward expressing the poets, the composer, themselves, and, by extension, the listener. They remind me that I listen to this music because it has the power to mirror the content of my own heart.
I've been listening to this music for thirty years. Fischer-Dieskau's live recordings of the Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen with Furtwangler in Salzburg and with Leonard Bernstein's piano accompaniment are particular favorites. Among the younger generation I love Konrad Jarnott and Christopher Maltman. But I don't believe in "best" recordings. Great works can be superbly interpreted in many ways. I think a test -- if you really must apply a test -- of the validity of particular interpretations is how inevitable they sound when you're listening to them. When I listen to these, there are no others.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Another Fine Mahlerite
8 April 2011
Format:Audio CD
Christian Gerhaher is moving through the lieder repertoire at a steady pace, lending his beautiful rich baritone voice to the music of many masters. In this recital he and his collaborator Gerold Huber give a well-rounded survey of Mahler songs. For many the absence of orchestra and the substitution of the piano may be a disappointment, but for others it will be the opportunity to hear the quality of the melody lines Mahler molded so well with more clarity.
Gerhaher's voice s never less than beautiful to listen to and his enunciation of the texts is immaculate. His range is broad and shows no loss of quality throughout. The balance between voice and piano is excellent. On many levels this is a near perfect Mahler program. For this listener there is some lack of conviction in the emotive conveying of the Mahler angst. Gerhaher does not 'lay into' some phrases for drama the way, say, Thomas Hampson has done on some recordings. But he aldo fails to plumb the depths of feeling that Mahler describes: listen to 'Ich Bin Der Welt Abhanden Gekommen' for example and compare that sound to the text. Or consider the 'Urlicht' and see if it moves in the same way it does with other singers.
But these are quibbles and examples of taste. Gerhaher is an understated singer and that does indeed prevent him from wallowing in the sadness of the Mahler genre - in many ways refreshing and more sophisticated singing than that form others. it is unlikely that for those who love the music of Gustav Mahler will not have other recordings of these works. But Christian Gerhaher gives a different approach and one that is first and foremost beutifully sung and technically and interpretatively. And there are little Mahler songs here that are rarities indeed. Grady Harp, April 11
Gerhaher's voice s never less than beautiful to listen to and his enunciation of the texts is immaculate. His range is broad and shows no loss of quality throughout. The balance between voice and piano is excellent. On many levels this is a near perfect Mahler program. For this listener there is some lack of conviction in the emotive conveying of the Mahler angst. Gerhaher does not 'lay into' some phrases for drama the way, say, Thomas Hampson has done on some recordings. But he aldo fails to plumb the depths of feeling that Mahler describes: listen to 'Ich Bin Der Welt Abhanden Gekommen' for example and compare that sound to the text. Or consider the 'Urlicht' and see if it moves in the same way it does with other singers.
But these are quibbles and examples of taste. Gerhaher is an understated singer and that does indeed prevent him from wallowing in the sadness of the Mahler genre - in many ways refreshing and more sophisticated singing than that form others. it is unlikely that for those who love the music of Gustav Mahler will not have other recordings of these works. But Christian Gerhaher gives a different approach and one that is first and foremost beutifully sung and technically and interpretatively. And there are little Mahler songs here that are rarities indeed. Grady Harp, April 11
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