Mahler: Songs With Orchestra / Tislon Thomas

Michael Tilson Thomas, conductor; San Francisco Symphony; Thomas Hampson, baritone; Susan Graham, mezzo-soprano

Mahler: Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen / Rückert-Lieder / Selections from Des Knaben Wunderhorn

Wholenote Discoveries - October 2010
Michael Tilson Thomas brings the San Francisco Symphony’s decade long self-produced Mahler cycle to a close with a curiously low-key album of orchestral songs featuring baritone Thomas Hampson and mezzo-soprano Susan Graham. Hampson, widely regarded as the leading Mahler singer of his generation, holds the lion’s share of this disc in concert performances of Mahler’s Songs of a Wayfarer and five selections from The Youth’s Magic Horn, while the equally eminent Graham (though less familiar in this repertoire) contributes five of Mahler’s settings of the poems of Friedrich Rückert. Hampson has recorded Mahler many times before and has not particularity outshone himself in these performances, which strike me as conspicuously mannered – one might even say hammy – and not entirely accurate. Graham’s luxuriant interpretation of the Rückert songs makes a much stronger impression, save for a few nervous moments when she is forced into her upper register. Tilson Thomas and his engineers skillfully balance the orchestra in deference to the voices and, quite unlike earlier installments in this cycle, his tempos are leisurely and relatively rigid. Those looking for mere beauty in singing may be safely assured of a comfortable evening with the superstars. Daniel Foley

Here is Mahler the enchanter. The selections from Des Knaben Wunderhorn are the composer’s take on folk tunes, playful and touching. The Songs of a Wayfarer (Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen) tell of young love lost. And the Rückert settings are, in a word, gorgeous. Hear Susan Graham and Thomas Hampson, two of today’s great Mahler singers, as they join Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony in this final album of the award-winning MTT/SFS Mahler cycle.
“Graham was characteristically poised and radiant. The American mezzo-soprano lent her full, lustrous tone, regal bearing, and keen sensitivity to these uniquely beautiful songs, beginning here with “Liebst du um Schönheit” (If you love because of beauty), conducted with great sensitivity by Tilson Thomas and limned by Graham’s lovely, rounded projection of the text.” Georgia Rowe, San Francisco Classical Voice
“Hampson and the orchestra probed the music for all the pity and terror they conveyed…. Hampson's singing [of the last song] was as robust and mellifluous as ever, and he projected all the bite and tenderness of Mahler's melodies flawlessly." Joshua Kosman, San Francisco Chronicle

Price: $29.98