Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde

A symphony for tenor and alto for voice and orchestra is the description of this work by Mahler himself. Consisting of 6 movements, the tenor and alto are assigned 3 alternating movements starting with the tenor in the first movement and ended with alto's solo in the last movement.

After around 10 listenings of different recordings of this work, from Klemperer, Kubelik, Walter, Haitink and Horenstein, I've came to a conclusion that I prefer the Tenor movements more than I prefer the Alto's. My favourite Tenor for DLvdE is none other than Wunderlich in the Klemperer recordings. I cannot help but drop my jaw everytime I listen to him in the first song, 'The Drinking Song of Earth's Misery'. How he kept himself being outdone from the orchestra sound in the famous ape lines still wonder me. And listen to his gorgeous rendering of more delicate 'Of Youth' and 'The Drunkard in Spring' and you can tell that this recording is for the ages. Other tenors are quite good but I don't think they've ever reached Wunderlich's level.

For the Alto part, my favourite movement is the 'Of Beauty' movement. I always love the transition between the slow tempo to the galloping tempo in the middle of the song describing the arrival of horse-riding-good-looking-young-fella. And Janet Baker's rendering in Haitink's recording is the benchmark for me. She is just too exciting and I can't help myself bouncing to her voice when she delivered her fast passages after the galloping theme from the orchestra. The last movement which has always been perceived as the crown of DLvdE is a little bit too long for me, but Kathleen Ferrier's reading in Walter's recording is too overwhelming so that one cannot but to be moved by her. The second movement is just a little bit too sleepy for me but I've gained a bit more appreciation of it nowadays.

Now when will I have the courage to listen to Mahler's so called earth shattering 9th symphony..I'll make sure that I do it before the end of this month.