Review: Gielen's Gloriously Gory Mahler "Das Klagende Lied"
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- Опубликовано: 13 сен 2024
- Finally, a performance of Mahler's youthful horror story that realizes every gruesome detail with positively sadistic relish. There are other fine versions in the catalog, Tilson Thomas and Chailly especially, but this live version is the most graphic, exciting, and true to Mahler's youthful vision. Great sound, great singing, great conducting--this is now the one to get.
Musical Example courtesy of Orfeo Records (C210021)
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LOVE the recommendation and the sound clips! This just went to the top of all of my wishlists and shopping carts, and they won't stay there for long. BTW, everytime you discuss Michael Gielen I think of Werner Herzog - "The birds are not singing. They are screaming in agony." 😀
For me David, this is one of your greatest reviews. Well, for one thing, I completely agree with your assessment.
I am very grateful to you for recommending the SWR Gielen Cycle. It really is hard to do Mahler better than Gielen, and this seems like a truly wonderful recording.
I was waiting for this album and of course your review. Thank you! Just got it and loved it!
Downloaded this on 2/5/2021 from Qobuz. No booklet, FYI. Exceptional performance! Glad to read you concur. Every aspect of this recording that you extolled is true. I am a fan of Herr Gielen’s conducting, and second another poster up thread who praised the Missa solemnis, which was the first in Orfeo’s Gielen archival series. More to come, I hope.
Berlioz' Lelio will be out shortly. Odd, but interesting.
Oh, the shreck, the schreck!
Dave, I JUST finished listening to this and I'm glad I did for all the reasons you cited. Incredible. The only caveat is it did need a good hefty volume boost above my normal settings to really get the impact of it pp to ff. Certainly above the Chailly Decca. But I ran around the house searching for structural damage after that last chord!!
Just got around to hearing this one. You didn't oversell it, David. Really exquisite all around.
Dear David, I thank you for this from the bottom of my heart. Just got your Mahler book and realized all the music on the accompanying CDs are from Gielen. Wish you could review his live recording of the Mahler 9th from 2003. Beginning to fear that you record your videos faster than I can watch them.
I'm sorry to write a second time, but I listened through this at Spotify and really liked it. In addition to everything you pointed out David, I like that I can hear the offstage band parts very clearly. That's not always the case! I also like the combination of a no-nonsense, stickler for detail type like Gielen, matched up with a decent Viennese orchestra in the bigger Konzerthaus. I like the big and dark horn sound, and the slightly out-of-tune playing of the winds here and there. That may sound crazy, but I think it lends an appropriate rustic quality to the tonal picture. The timpani are a little forward for my own taste, but all the other percussion is really there! Also, he really makes that chorus work and shriek - just as you say. I'm getting this for sure.
Gielen was a terrific Mahler conductor, and this sounds incredible. Speaking of nihilistic...If you like the music of the Second Viennese School, you can get Vol. 8 of the Michael Gielen Edition. It's twelve CDs of some of the best performances of the music you can find.
Have it already, and I second your recommendation.
Hooo yeesss, Gielen was a terrific Mahler conductor !! I love the Gielen edition from SWR music.
Purchasing now! Thanks.
Hope you like it!
Ordered. Just as I have so many other recommendations. But none are ever in stock at Amazon US. Most are ordered through Amazon US but shipped from Europe. Which is ok, but takes longer, and I am an impatient man. I also look at Presto to see if I can support them. Thanks for all the great videos!
I've always thought that there's a similarity between the collapse of the castle in Mahler's "DKL" and the ending of R. Strauss' "Salome". Of course, the Mahler came first. But assuming one agrees with that thought, it's little wonder that Mahler was so distraught over not being able to premiere "Salome" in Vienna (he couldn't get it past the censors). I'll pick up this Gielen one.
Alex Ross has a great description of the first Austrian performance of Salome, in Graz. Many musical notables on hand, including Strauss himself, Mahler, Puccini, Schoenberg, Berg, Zemlinsky, and a 17 year-old opera fan who would later be known as Adolf Hitler.
Yeah, this was hot! They're putting out some good Gielen stuff. I quite liked the live Missa Solemnis that Orfeo put out last year as well - very fiery.
I agree that Gielen is a truly great Mahler conductor. His set of the Mahler symphonies (with his SWR Orchester) is my favourite one (among fierce competition).
There's a performance of the original version on dvd, conducted by Vladimir Jurowski.
Nice to know. Thanks.
Unfortunately while it's a wonderful performance, I'm hearing a decent amount of distortion on this recording. It's especially noticeable with the woodwinds at the start of the second part. I found this recording on Spotify, Tidal, and RUclips and the distortion was present on all three. Is it just me? Do I just need to get over it for the sake of this performance?
I didn't listen on streaming services but it sounded fine to me on CD.
Same issue here, on Spotify. A weird sibilance is quite problematic in the entire part II. Unfortunate as the performance is impressive. I really love how Gielen isolate the low brass/woodwing instruments in part I. Maybe the tenor is not the best, in particular he has a wobbly entrance, he gets better after that.
@@gregoryemery8605 Same with Apple Music. 😩 That means IMO that it probably aren't compression artifacts but rather a bad recording. One would think they had better recording equipment even then in 1990.
@@Mynonade Good to have a confirmation that the CD is fine, but I don't have any CD player anymore :(
I will try to write to Orfeo, but I would be surprised that they will re-upload a corrected version.
Nice to hear that the awful distortion is not on the CD, but to my opinion the Tilson Thomas recording is still better. The more technical and quick parts are way more sharp and fresh, the ballance with the choir and soloists is better, I like the soloists more, the sound is more transparent and clear, and I didn't notice intonation problems as with Gielen’s (I noticed them mainly in the tuba part, but that's probably because I'm a tuba player myself - really a difficult part: long notes very soft in the low register - the tuba part in Tilson Thomas's recording is sometimes unrealistically soft and controlled.) - If you want to hear more tuba (sometimes out of tune and not together with the rest of the orchestra) Gielen's recording is definitely the one to get. Pity that the distortion on Spotify is too awful to enjoy the benefits of the recording Hurwitz is talking about.
Bruuuckknerrrhmhmhmhm!! (6:44)
I've always liked this music. But why is it played so seldom? Maybe it's the vast forces needed: the chorus, soloists, off-stage band? But that doesn't stop programming the 2nd, 3rd or 8th symphonies. I was so looking forward to finally hearing it live at the Leipzig Mahler Festival in May. Alas, it's cancelled!
He plays the flute, and it says: "Wenn ist das Nunstück git und Slotermeyer? Ja! Beiherhund das Oder die Flipperwaldt gersput!"
And everybody dies.
It was the end of the joke....
Pfff, I had to google it, because I didn't recognize my mother language. - Monty Python, of course, I could have thought of that myself … 😂
It's a Grim(m) fairytale, right?
Sort of.
@@DavesClassicalGuide Grimm or not, it was adapted for the big Cinerama 'Brothers Grimm" movie when I was a kid. Buddy Hackett played the bone flute! It is so nice to find this artistic and wonderful adaptation of it here...