Jascha Horenstein deserves tremendous credit for his Mahlerian crusade in Britain in the 1950s, ’60s, and ’70s. But with hindsight, we can now see that he was seldom given the best working conditions or the best orchestras, and some “legendary” performances–the Third and Eighth Symphonies in particular–have dated. The same holds true for this Das Lied von der Erde, which dates from 1972. Even then, with Klemperer’s and Bernstein’s performances readily available, standards of performance in this work were very high. Much is made of the fact that Horenstein had numerous rehearsals before this performance, but that doesn’t change the fact that there is very little distinguished playing here. The horns in particular display a tentative, watery tone, and there’s very little “bottom” to the orchestra’s sound. At the climax of “Von der Schönheit”, for example, trombones and tuba fail to cut through the texture as Mahler demands, and the very opening of “Der Abschied” isn’t together at all, with inaudible tam-tam and no depth to the basses and contrabassoon.
Alfreda Hodgson is the best thing about this performance. Her singing shows a genuine involvement with the text, and she projects the emotional sadness of, say, the second movement without disfiguring her tone. But by the same token, she’s no Janet Baker or Christa Ludwig, nor is John Mitchenson a Fritz Wunderlich or James King. Horenstein’s conducting also is nothing special. The slowish tempos bother me less than the quick ones (that opening of “Abschied” again; it’s never been played so insensitively or with so little tension). In the great orchestral interlude between the last song’s two sections, the rhythm is slack, the wind playing indifferent, the great trombone pedal tones virtually absent at the climax. It’s not terrible, and the emotional ambiance is there, but there’s simply no way that this is great Mahler playing or conducting, and given the fact that Bernstein, Klemperer, Haitink, and the recent Oue (on Reference Recordings) offer both, this performance must remain of fundamentally historical interest. BBC Music’s transfer improves slightly on an earlier incarnation from Music and Arts, and Horenstein fans will want this as a matter of course. Otherwise, for committed collectors of Das Lied only.
