Gustav Mahler: Kindertotenlieder; Rueckert Lieder; Der Einsame im Herbst, from Das Lied von der Erde
Thomas Hampson, baritone; Wolfram Rieger, piano (EMI Classics)
This is an important recording of Mahler’s most uniformly dark solo vocal work. Mahler’s “Kindertotenlieder” (Songs on the Death of Children) are interpretively difficult, all five songs being death-obsessed, offering the singer very few opportunities to lighten or vary the mood. Thomas Hampson manages this feat with considerable artistry in an interpretation that is raptly inward but never lugubrious. While he rages magnificently in the opening lines of the final song, “In diesem Wetter,” he shades beautifully when shading is called for. At the words “Der Tag is schoen! O, sei nicht bang!” in the fourth song, “Oft denk’ ich,” he rises to hushed, flutelike head voice and glides downward again in a purling legato phrase.
As for his “Rueckert” songs, it’s hard to decide which is most elegantly done. My vote goes to “Ich atmet’ einen linden Duft,” a gem. Perhaps the baritone lingers rather too lovingly on “Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen,” even if he inhabits the song with deep introspective feeling. “Der Einsame im Herbst,” from the song-symphony “Das Lied von der Erde,” makes an exquisite bonus. Recommended to all admirers of Hampson, whose every recording confirms his stature as one of today’s most thoughtful and interesting interpreters of German lieder.
