Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde is, it is generally agreed, a masterpiece. But the opening song is one of classical music's most notoriously difficult passages for performers, thanks to the torrential density of its orchestration, which can overwhelm even the loudest of heldentenors in the concert hall. Mahler never heard the work live. Would he have revised it, if he had? There are some who believe so, among them Mark Elder, who asked Colin Matthews to rescore the relevant section for a Hallé performance to mark the centenary of Kathleen Ferrier's birth. Purists might be alarmed, but it actually works rather well.
Matthews has Mahler in his system, and this sounds like the real thing rather than pastiche. He retains the raucous original when the orchestra plays alone, but softens the palette whenever Lars Cleveman begins to sing. Matthews also keeps everything well within heldentenor territory; smaller-voiced singers may still, I suspect, have difficulty here. Cleveman, though, is able to roar comfortably at the song's nightmarish climax, rather than vanish into inaudibility.
The more refined sound brings with it a shift in tone, however, replacing existential terror with something more elegiac. This accords with Elder's reflective reading of the work as a whole, but might not work so well in more volatile interpretations. The Hallé did some exceptional things with it throughout – the woodwind solos in the final Abschied were particularly eloquent and unnerving. Alice Coote, who is tremendous in this work, was the mezzo soloist, living out the music with restrained but noble intensity. It was prefaced by Mozart's 40th Symphony, moodily done, with Elder allowing himself, and us, the luxury of every single repeat marked in the score.
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