This collection exactly duplicates the 1905 concert in which these works were premiered. The “Lieder-Abend” introduced a new musical format: the orchestral song. In recreating that 1905 program, Kent Nagano utilizes the original chamber orchestra, greatly enhancing the songs’ impact. Instrumental lines are crystal clear, elucidating Mahler’s unerringly idiosyncratic orchestration and tone painting. This also benefits the singer, and baritone Dietrich Henschel uses the reduced forces to his great advantage. Henschel is a demonstrative singer in the Fischer-Dieskau mode; he even has something of the elder baritone’s velvet tone, but thankfully, little of his bark. Accordingly, Henschel imbues each of the Wunderhorn songs with a distinct character and dramatic shading. He is commanding in “Revelge”, tender in “Rheinlengenchen”, and gloom-laden in “Der Tamboursg’sell” (where the horns’ mournful baying is quite chilling).
Nagano highlights interesting details in the four Rückert Lieder, such as an early glimpse of the Ninth Symphony’s closing pages in “Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen”. Henschel cultivates a stoic wistfulness for these delicate, poignant songs, a posture that carries over to the Kindertotenlieder. But after Jessye Norman’s exquisitely heartbreaking account with Ozawa, I’ve come to expect a more elevated level of devastation in these songs than this singer delivers. Nagano again works magic with the accompaniments, exposing the source-code of Schoenberg’s orchestral style. I do wish, however, that he’d been a bit more unbuttoned in “In Diesem Wetter”, especially when Bernstein (with Janet Baker) generates a tightly reined fury, and the closing pages evoke such an ecstatic and transcendent beauty. This does little to diminish Henschel and Nagano’s achievement, however, as this disc will make you listen to these frequently recorded songs with fresh ears. Teldec’s stunningly vivd sound completes the circle. A most important Mahler release.
