Pianist Leif Ova Andsnes live at 2019 Proms

[Rach3]

Andsnes plays the Britten PC, one of my fav PC’s, at 2019 Proms,with BBCSO/Gardner. Wonderful reading by all concerned.Encore by Mompou:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00076mg

An assessment of his 2017-18 season performance of the PC with the NYPO/Pappano, the first time the NYPO had played the work in 36 years( ! ) : http://www.andsnes.com/news/post/andsne ... ilharmonic

[maestrob]

Well, I finally got to this today, and the Britten was quite good, the Mahler less so. Gardner is quite a good conductor in what I've heard from him so far, but he rushed tenor Stuart Skelton through the opening movement (Das Trinklied) of the Mahler. Gardner was more sympathetic in the rest of the work, but the "mezzo" singing the female songs was really a soprano with working low notes, which meant that she could sing the music but with out the necessary darker colors Mahler wanted. The Britten Piano Concerto was the best piece on the program, played with fire and electricity by Leif Ove Andsnes: very fine.

Thanks for posting this! The conversation during the interval was quite interesting; I learned a lot about the history of the proms.

[John F]

I agree that "Das Lied von der Erde" is most affecting when sung by an "alto," whether a contralto like Kathleen Ferrier or a mezzo-soprano like most others. (I really dislike the baritone alternative.) Mahler didn't live to conduct the premiere so we can't know for sure what his preference would have been, but it could well have been the contralto who Bruno Walter chose for the premiere, Mme. Charles Cahier. She was one of Mahler's favorites at the Vienna Court Opera, and though she didn't record any of "Das Lied," she did record "Urlicht" from the 2nd symphony, and this:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWuJ2z1WYpc

The line between mezzo-sopranos and sopranos is not engraved in stone and many singers have crossed it in both directions, among them Christa Ludwig whose fine recording of "Das Lied" with Klemperer is one of my favorites. But Mahler's "alto," whether taken to mean contralto or mezzo-soprano, certainly doesn't mean soprano.

[barney]

I had the good fortune to get to know Das Lied von der Erde in the famous account by Kathleen Ferrier and Jules Patzak under Bruno Walter, and it is still my gold standard. But I am also deeply attached to the much less well-known Nan Merriman and Ernst Haefliger with Eduard van Beinum, and I also like Solti with Yvonne Minton and Rene Kollo and Janet Baker and James King with Bernard Haitink. I seem to recall greatly enjoying Maureen Forrester and Richard Lewis with Fritz Reiner, which I got in the RCA Living Stereo box set, but haven't gone back to it since, because there is so much to listen to!
Looking at my list, I see I also have Jessye Norman and Jon Vickers with Colin Davis, which I don't recall at all - does anyone know this interpretation? Among others I also have the James King and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau which gets the thumbs down from JohnF.

[maestrob]

I had the good fortune to get to know Das Lied von der Erde in the famous account by Kathleen Ferrier and Jules Patzak under Bruno Walter, and it is still my gold standard. But I am also deeply attached to the much less well-known Nan Merriman and Ernst Haefliger with Eduard van Beinum, and I also like Solti with Yvonne Minton and Rene Kollo and Janet Baker and James King with Bernard Haitink. I seem to recall greatly enjoying Maureen Forrester and Richard Lewis with Fritz Reiner, which I got in the RCA Living Stereo box set, but haven't gone back to it since, because there is so much to listen to!
Looking at my list, I see I also have Jessye Norman and Jon Vickers with Colin Davis, which I don't recall at all - does anyone know this interpretation? Among others I also have the James King and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau which gets the thumbs down from JohnF.

Bruno Walter did indeed lead the premiere of Das Lied, and is therefore my preferred conductor of the work. There are subtleties in his interpretation that no other conductor can match, including Klemperer, who seems to be John's favorite. It's not mine. In fact, I prefer Walter's stereo recording with Ernst Haefliger and Mildred Miller, and not just for the sound quality, which is excellent, but for the vocal quality of both the singers. Patzak is past his prime in the earlier recording, and Ferrier's vibrato is just too fast at the end of her career when she was sadly already dying of cancer. Walter's interpretation is the same in both recordings (with some accommodation for the voices in 1950). Thus, I prefer the later reading. I've yet to hear another version to equal it.