This performance has two big assets and one huge liability. The assets are Stuart Skelton’s really heroic performance of the tenor part, and Michael Tilson Thomas’ excellent conducting of a supremely responsive San Francisco Symphony. First, Skelton: here is a tenor who truly has the heft for the part. In the opening song he cuts through the orchestra with just the right defiant tone. True, his voice isn’t perfectly flexible–those little melodic turns in the vocal line tend to be glossed over; but whether here, in the delicate imagery of “Of Youth”, or in the tipsy abandon of “The Drunkard in Spring”, Skelton must be acknowledged as one of the better tenors to take the part, at least recently.
MTT’s Mahler sometimes suffers from mannered phrasing, but here he proves himself supremely sensitive to his singers, and well able to project the subtleties of Mahler’s orchestration. One example will suffice: listen to the wailing woodwind at the climax of Der Abschied’s central interlude–this is the real Mahlerian deal (though why so little tam-tam at its climax?). The orchestra’s solo wind players, flute and oboe particularly, give exquisite accounts of their parts. There is nothing in the response of the orchestra that falls below world-class quality, and the sonics are very good in all formats (with one exception) considering the recording’s live provenance.
So what’s the problem? I can sum it up in two words: Thomas Hampson. His participation really begs the question of whether Thomas, as the man in charge, exercised sensible judgment. Hampson recorded Das Lied several years ago with Simon Rattle; he was that performance’s big liability as well. Wasn’t MTT listening? Hampson’s dry timbre was bad enough then, and it’s gotten worse. He lacks the range for the part at both ends of the scale, resorting to an unappealing falsetto in “The Lonely Man in Autumn” and giving up singing entirely in the “horseback” interlude in “Of Beauty”. Granted, Fischer-Dieskau shouted too, particularly in his recording with Bernstein, but his approach is so much more attractive everywhere else. Hampson’s diction is also strange, particularly on the vowel “e” (as in “ewig”) often to the point of distraction.
Worst of all, in the concluding apotheosis of “Der Abschied”, which Mahler asks to be played and sung triple piano, Hampson comes blasting in with all the subtlety of Ethel Merman belting out “Everything’s Coming Up Roses”. Despite the fact that Mahler himself sanctioned performances with a baritone instead of the more usual alto, performances like Hampson’s really do demonstrate that the music works better with a female soloist. The mezzo/alto range seems to fit the vocal tessitura better, and rides the accompaniments more clearly. But whether you agree with me or not on this point, you surely will dislike Hampson’s contribution to this otherwise fine performance, one that makes it impossible to recommend this release with anything other than very qualified enthusiasm.
