Mahler - Das Lied von der Erde
Ferrier; Lewis; Hallé Orchestra / Barbirolli
Brahms - Alto Rhapsody
Ferrier; Olso Philharmonic Choir and Orchestra / Tuxen
APR APR5579

Release date April 2003

Here is a dream team for Mahler's Song of the Earth: Richard Lewis in amazing voice, esteemed Mahlerian Sir John Barbirolli together with his most admired and beloved friend "Katie" Ferrier. The recording was made in Manchester in April 1952, about a month before the Viennese recording with Bruno Walter which has since passed into gramophone legend. Composed when he had recently been diagnosed with a heart problem, the work Mahler described to Walter as "his most personal" was destined never to be heard by its composer. The shadow of death had also already fallen across the "Rose of Lancaster". Those who possess the Decca recording (now out on Naxos!) will delight in having this disc as well, although the first seven bars are missing and the recorded sound suffers from some interference in track 10, the end of Der Abschied (Bah!). The Hallé Orchestra are in splendid form, the woodwind particularly plangent, as the soloist sings Ich suche Ruhe für mein einsam Herz!. The filler is Brahms' Alto Rhapsody, which could have been composed for Ferrier, a solemn, yet optimistic work, with much of the material having echoes in the Deutsche Requiem.

Reviewed by Kate Grue