Mahler: Kindertotenlieder, Ruckert Lieder, etc.by Anonymous

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October 06, 2000: This is a hauntingly beautiful recording which made me love Mahler?s music when I first heard it as a young music student over twenty-five years ago. I was so grateful when it was remastered and reissued as a CD! Janet Baker is at the height of her vocal powers on this recording. Not surprisingly, the listener hardly notices that fact because it is the artist?s ability to communicate music, and especially the meaning of a text, which comes through so profoundly. Let?s face it, nobody could make being heartbroken sound as noble as Mahler could. There are many fine recordings of these pieces. However, Miss Baker seems to be distinctly unique in her ability to ?get out of the way? of the texts and simply allow the music to pour through her. The emotional rollercoaster of rejection, portrayed with such pathos in the Songs of a Wayfarer, is given a chilling dramatization. Denial, self-recrimination, fury, subtle attempts to assure oneself that one is not to blame --- these are all emotions Ruckert expresses in the Kindertotenlieder. Mahler?s treatment of these words is extraordinary, and Dame Janet?s interpretation is spine-tinglingly communicative. The Five Ruckertlieder which complete the disc are equally beautiful. In fact, the serenity and bittersweetness of ?Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen? is perhaps one of the most amazing uses of music to paint a text --in this case an expression of the ?Weltshmerz? so much a part of German thought and poetry of the first half of the twentieth century. Barbirolli seems to be accompanying the soloist and she, in turn, seems to use her voice as a solo instrument within the orchestral ensemble. After almost thirty years, this recording still feeds my soul.