Like the Elgar violin concerto, Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde has been pretty lucky on disk, with a number of first class performances in addition to my favourite, Jascha Horenstein with the BBC Northern Orchestra (!) Listened yesterday to Klemperer's 1951 Vox recording (courtesy of Ronald de Haas). Excellent performance, but I preferred Anton Dermota to Elsa Cavelti, the mezzo soprano. The recording quality was truly excellent for 1951. But, the recorders had used multi-miking and spotlighting, so much of the performance sounded uncomfortably as if the solo item had been dubbed on afterwards. Solos hung in their own space, rather than emerging from the different strands of the sounds.
A pity. Still, this does stand as an excellent and worthwhile performance to have captured.
My birthday yesterday. Pretty quiet, and sad contrast to last year's. And, since I am away in Vilnius for a few days after today, the fridge was run down and there was nothing exciting to eat. And it wasn't worth opening a bottle of good wine. Thus, Das Lied made for appropriate, gloomy listening.