Mahler: Kindertotenlieder, Ruckert-Lieder / Meier, Maazel

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Given Mahler's status as a constructor of vast symphonies, the significance of Schubert and the art-song tradition within his musical formation tends to be overlooked. Certainly this strain of songwriting is present in many of the symphonies--most overtly in the earlier ones. But it's particularly obvious in Mahler's settings of the German Romantic poet Friedrich Rückert, for whom Schubert himself showed an affinity in his own choice of lieder texts. This marvelous recording captures both the richly expressive detail and the structural mastery with which Mahler synthesized poetry and music in his two song cycles based on Rückert.

Waltraud Meier's distinctive, dark-hued timbre underscores the sense of gravity and hard-won vision as the Kindertotenlieder attempt to come to terms with the loss of children. Well-known for her portrayal of Kundry in Parsifal, Meier's Wagnerian background ensures a sense of brooding drama--particularly in the implacable rhythm of "Wenn dein Mutterlein" and the anxious, metaphoric storm of "In diesem Wetter"--but she also sings with the moving intimacy that is essential for the world Mahler creates: the act of self-address here serves to intensify the experience of private grief. Meier blends her voice superbly with the plaintive, delicately scored wind lines. She and Lorin Maazel--his sense for the right tempo and textural balance unerring--together give shape to the cycle's emotional progression. At times there's a harshness to Meier's upper range, as well as an unwelcome heaviness (as in the last of the four Wunderhorn selections that fill out the disc). But her deep empathy with each song's meaning has tremendous payoff, above all in the sustained incandescence she brings to "Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen" from the Rückert-Lieder, perhaps the single most beautiful of all Mahler's songs. --Thomas May

Mahler: Kindertotenlieder, Ruckert-Lieder / Meier, Maazel, Music, Gustav Mahler, Lorin Maazel, Waltraud Meier, Bayerischen Rundfunkorchester, Bayerischen Rundfunks Sinfonie-orchester, Lorin Maazel, Waltraud Meier, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Classical, Classical Artists, Classical Music, Orchestral & Symphonic, Song Collection for Solo Voice with Piano or Orchestra, Song Cycle for Solo Voice with Piano or Orchestra, Vocal

Mahler: Kindertotenlieder, Ruckert-Lieder / Meier, Maazel
Average customer rating:

Not the best, but fine

Meier isn't at her best, and Maazel is as usual

Emotionally moving

Mahler: Kindertotenlieder, Ruckert-Lieder / Meier, Maazel
Lorin Maazel , and Waltraud Meier
Manufacturer: RCA
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Lieder of Brahms, Schubert, Schumann

ASIN: B00000I0M3
Release Date: 1999-02-09

Tracks:

Ruckert-Lieder - Blicke mir nicht in die Lieder
Ruckert-Lieder - Ich atmet' einen linden Duft
Ruckert-Lieder - Um Mitternacht
Ruckert-Lieder - Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen
Ruckert-Lieder - Liebst du um Schonheit
Kindertotenlieder - Nun will die Sonn' so hell aufgeh'n
Kindertotenlieder - Nun seh' ich wohl, warum so dunkle Flammen
Kindertotenlieder - Wenn dein Mutterlein
Kindertotenlieder - Oft denk' ich, sie sind nur ausgegangen
Kindertotenlieder - In diesem Wetter
Lieder aus Des Knaben Wunderhorn - Rheinlegendchen
Lieder aus Des Knaben Wunderhorn - Das irdische Leben
Lieder aus Des Knaben Wunderhorn - Wo die schonen Trompeten blasen
Lieder aus Des Knaben Wunderhorn - Des Antonius von Padua Fishpredigt

Amazon.com

Given Mahler's status as a constructor of vast symphonies, the significance of Schubert and the art-song tradition within his musical formation tends to be overlooked. Certainly this strain of songwriting is present in many of the symphonies--most overtly in the earlier ones. But it's particularly obvious in Mahler's settings of the German Romantic poet Friedrich Rückert, for whom Schubert himself showed an affinity in his own choice of lieder texts. This marvelous recording captures both the richly expressive detail and the structural mastery with which Mahler synthesized poetry and music in his two song cycles based on Rückert.

Waltraud Meier's distinctive, dark-hued timbre underscores the sense of gravity and hard-won vision as the Kindertotenlieder attempt to come to terms with the loss of children. Well-known for her portrayal of Kundry in Parsifal, Meier's Wagnerian background ensures a sense of brooding drama--particularly in the implacable rhythm of "Wenn dein Mutterlein" and the anxious, metaphoric storm of "In diesem Wetter"--but she also sings with the moving intimacy that is essential for the world Mahler creates: the act of self-address here serves to intensify the experience of private grief. Meier blends her voice superbly with the plaintive, delicately scored wind lines. She and Lorin Maazel--his sense for the right tempo and textural balance unerring--together give shape to the cycle's emotional progression. At times there's a harshness to Meier's upper range, as well as an unwelcome heaviness (as in the last of the four Wunderhorn selections that fill out the disc). But her deep empathy with each song's meaning has tremendous payoff, above all in the sustained incandescence she brings to "Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen" from the Rückert-Lieder, perhaps the single most beautiful of all Mahler's songs. --Thomas May

Customer Reviews:

Not the best, but fine.......2006-11-30

In a few words: Maazel shows a personal idea of each work in this album, and that is commendable. The orchestra sounds pure and committed to the task. As for Mrs. Meier... well, her voice sounds bad; she tries to give emotion, though. If you are going to make a first approach to these works, move swiftly to another version. If this is going to be one among many others, go for it.

Meier isn't at her best, and Maazel is as usual.......2005-09-27

Maazel made a premium-priced cycle of Mahler symphonies on Sony with the incredible vienna Phil, but even they couldn't save performances that were savaged by the critics (except for the Fourth, which rather oddly became a critics' darling). Maazel is glib, shallow, and stiff in Mahler, three defects that are fatal. They certainly prove to be here, and Meier's rather curdled voice is no friend to Mahler's rich emotionality either.

Emotionally moving.......2000-01-30

My favorite female Wagnerian, Waltraud Meier's considerable strengths have never included pure vocal beauty. But she lends a different kind of beauty to these songs, altogether preferable to some nightingale cheerfully singing through the Songs on the Death of Children, or, worse, a soprano sobbing and choking her way through some of Mahler's finest songs. Meier's emotionalism runs much deeper. Lorin Maazel's conducting is superb; he and Meier have worked together often on recordings, and they seem to have built an artistic rapport with one another.

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