Here is Mahler the Enchanter. The selections from Des Knaben Wunderhorn are the composer’s take on folk tunes, playful and touching. The Songs of a Wayfarer (Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen) tell of young love lost. And the Rückert settings are, in a word, gorgeous. Hear Susan Graham and Thomas Hampson, two of today’s great Mahler singers, as they join Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony in this final album of the award-winning MTT/SFS Mahler cycle.
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Stephane Friederich
"Graham was characteristically poised and radiant. The American mezzo-soprano lent her full, lustrous tone, regal bearing, and keen sensitivity to these uniquely beautiful songs, beginning here with “Liebst du um Schönheit” (If you love because of beauty), conducted with great sensitivity by Tilson Thomas and limned by Graham’s lovely, rounded projection of the text." Georgia Rowe
"Hampson and the orchestra probed the music for all the pity and terror they conveyed….Hampson’s singing [of the last song] was as robust and mellifluous as ever, and he projected all the bite and tenderness of Mahler’s melodies flawlessly." Joshua Kosman
“…a potent performance… a powerful statement, musically and dramatically…. Tilson Thomas emphasized the score’s symphonic qualities, bringing forth all of Mahler’s ironies and contrasts – a grim march here, the long, elegant lines of love’s enchantment there…” Georgia Rowe
