Mahler - Lieder
Gerhaher; Huber
RCA 88697 567732

Release date January 2010

The German baritone Christian Gerhaher is one of today’s great lieder singers. He and his pianist Gerold Huber have worked together since student days, and their discs of Schubert and Schumann have won several awards.Gerhaher’s booklet essay for this new Mahler recording is uncommonly astute and informed, discussing Mahler’s song repertoire in the context of Schubert and Schumann, and examining the different approaches required for Mahler’s songs in their orchestral and piano versions. He draws interesting parallels between Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen and Schubert’s Die Winterreise; and from the performance angle this disc has much in common with Padmore and Lewis’s recent recording of Winterresise – very beautiful and considered singing married to intelligent and perceptive pianism. The second of the group of five early Mahler songs, Ich ging mit Lust, illustrates this well; Gerhaher’s gentle approach, evenness of tone throughout his range and beautiful unforced top notes lie easily on a piano part which, though unobtrusive, draws the listener in and provides a mesmeric underlay. Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen were originally composed for piano and voice, and Gerhaher grasps the opportunity to start the second verse of Die Zwei Blaue Augen at a true pianissimo dynamic. The sensitive handling of dynamics and tempi, and the subtle mood changes throughout this song, make it one of the disc’s highlights. Simplicity and straightforward delivery are the hallmark of the group of five later songs that follows, a calm and lovely rendering of Phantasie contrasting with the mood of Wo die Schonen Trompeten blasen, where in Huber’s hands the trumpet calls evolve into stabs of pain. The five Ruckert Lieder are given very fine performances: Blicke mir nicht in die Lieder is a delightful miniature; Ich atmet’ einen linden Duft is smooth as silk, heady and atmospheric; Um Mitternacht is beautifully sustained, with Gerhaher finally unleashing his whole voice in the last verse. Urlicht, which ends the disc, is spell-binding.

Reviewed by Anne McAlister