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MTT and Das Klagende Lied

Posted by TGR (A) on January 15, 2017 at 12:22:14

My wife and I attended the semi-staged performance of Mahler's Das Klagende Lied last night, given by the San Francisco Symphony conducted by MTT. As an aside, I wonder if MTT has conducted this work more than any other conductor, as he has led 3 subscription concerts of it during his tenure with the SFS, and this work is not exactly a staple of the repertoire. I am not really citing any evidence here, so could be wrong. I own both the MTT recording and the older Boulez recording, but haven't really focused on the music that much, so last night's concert was an opportunity to really do so. MTT presents it with the first movement, Waldmarchen, which seems correct to me, even though Mahler later cut it in order to get the work performed. It is the longest movement, actually, and sets the story, where one brother murders another.

Listening to the music, one is certainly astonished by the capability of the 20 year old Mahler, and his ability to orchestrate - this is as lush a score as anything composed by Mahler. What it doesn't have, IMO, is the ability that Mahler found later to wrench out your guts -there is nothing like the final movement of the 3rd, the slow movement of the 4th, and countless other hyper-emotional moments that make Mahler one of the all-time great composers.

The SFS seems to be doing about one semi-staged production per year - the last one I attended was the Missa Solemnis, and I have also attended the Flying Dutchman performance maybe 10 years ago, and the Debussy San Sebastian a while ago. The Missa, of course, doesn't need it, but was interesting, but I think Das Klagende Lied profited by it, in order to clarify the meaning and hold interest.

The first half of the program was the Blumine movement (originally composed for the first symphony, but later cut), properly given on its own, and the song cycle Lieder eines Fahrenden Gesellen, sung by the excellent mezzo Sasha Cooke, who also took the mezzo part in DKL. While my own preference is to hear a male voice in the Lieder (and my preferred recording is the Fischer-Dieskau with Kubelik), Cooke made a superb case for a mezzo.

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