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If you're expecting a good old concert performance of Mahler's ode to sorrow, memory, death, and rebirth, be forewarned. What you will see on this disc is a staged version of
Das Lied von der Erde. Beginning with the words "When music is for the eyes to see," we are told in a preamble that Mahler has returned from America "pale and ghostly." We watch as the music reveals his inner struggles, torments, and remembrances of his dead children. Is this a good way to go about presenting
Das Lied? That's entirely up to you. The performance by the Bass-Normandy Orchestral Ensemble conducted by Dominique Debart is really quite good. A further warning: the music is performed in a transcription for 13 musicians by Arnold Schönberg. This may elicit gasping from purists, but rest assured that the playing is very good, and the quiet moments have a wonderful transparency. Don't be fooled, though: 13 people (no trumpets or trombones, only one percussionist) cannot begin to approach the kind of volume that one traditionally associates with Mahler. The singing by tenor Vincent de Rooster and mezzo-soprano Helene Jossoud is first rate. The interpretation has moments of real sweep and beauty. Also on the disc is the
Kindertotenlieder in another arrangement for small forces, this time by the conductor, Amaury du Clossel. This is a traditional performance video, and a rather boring one; the singing by mezzo-soprano Claire Brua is only so-so, and the playing (this time by Atelier Lyrique et Symphonique du Centre) is not good. It might be best to hit that stop button before you get to this part of the disc.
-- Seth Krimsky
