Frederica von Stade – Mahler Songs

Recording#

The album was recorded using analogue technology on 8, 15 and 16 December 1978 in Abbey Road Studios, London. On 14 December 1978, von Stade, Davis and the London Philharmonic included the Gesellen songs in a concert given in London’s Royal Festival Hall.

Cover art#

The LP and cassette versions of the album share the same cover, designed by Allen Weinberg, featuring a photograph of von Stade taken by Valérie Clément.

Reviews#

J. B. Steane reviewed the album on LP in Gramophone in November 1979, comparing it with recordings of some of Mahler’s Lieder sung by Janet Baker, Marilyn Horne, Christa Ludwig and Yvonne Minton. None of the five could be recommended unequivocally, he wrote, but the best of them was Baker’s. Her disc was not perfect, but it was emotionally profound, impossible to forget and lovely to listen to. It was true that Ludwig’s Berlin Philharmonic played better than Baker’s New Philharmonia, but Ludwig’s own performance was inferior to Baker’s both in beauty of tone and in interpretation. Von Stade’s album was slightly disappointing too, although marginally preferable to Horne’s. The greatest asset of Baker’s disc was her own contribution to it. Von Stade, by contrast, got off to a bad start with her “Ich atmet’ einen linden Duft”, “not rising … to the ’linden’ very gracefully, and indulging too much in the habit of opening out individual notes in succession, ‘squeezing’ rather than ‘binding’.” There were points at which she sang well: “in ‘Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen’, the phrase ‘ich sei gestorben’ is most beautifully floated”, and in “Liebst du um Schönheit”, she brought more impulsiveness to “o ja, mich liebe!” than any of her rivals. But she did not have the vocal heft to cope with “Um Mitternacht” satisfactorily, and in quieter music, she was sometimes too laid back. George Jellinek reviewed the album on LP in Stereo Review in October 1980. Frederica von Stade, he wrote, was a perfect choice to sing Massenet, Mozart or Rossini, and was just as suited to the tormented music of Gustav Mahler, with its idiosyncratic mixture of simplicity and artifice. Not one of the fruity, contralto-like mezzo-sopranos usually assigned to Mahler’s vocal output, von Stade performed his songs with a lightness of tone, downplaying the high emotions of Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen and conveying the innocent naïveté of the ditties from Des Knaben Wunderhorn. Her words were “clearly articulated and sensitively ccloured for expression”, and she revealed the minutiae of Mahler’s scores “with the accuracy of a master instrumentalist”. There were times, indeed, when her interpretations could seem more carefully prepared than was desirable. For example, there were “cutesy” effects in the “Rheinlegendchen” which would enthrall some listeners but leave others wishing that von Stade had eschewed them and relied on her innate charm instead. Technically, her performances were full of things for the connoisseur of singing to enjoy. For instance, there was her immaculate bel canto filigree in “Wer hat dies Liedlein erdacht?”, and her gorgeous legato phrasing of the lines “Liebst du um Liebe, o ja, mich liebe!” in “Liebst du um Schönheit” and “Sie mag so glauben ich sei gestorben” in “Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen”. The only place at which her control faltered was in “Um Mitternacht”, the most exacting song on her album. The London Philharmonic accompanied her very well, and their skill in eliciting the lambent colours of Mahler’s scores was equalled by that of Columbia’s production team. Conducting, Andrew Davis made no serious mistakes, but he could have relaxed and smiled a little more in “Rheinlegendchen”. His pacing seemed generally sensible despite being slightly quicker than was usual. Only in “Um Mitternacht” and “Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen” did one feel that his tempo was ill-judged - the lower metronome markings used by John Barbirolli and Zubin Mehta had allowed a their soloists to plumb profounder depths of feeling than von Stade had been able to access.

Accolade#

In the 23rd annual Grammy Awards of 1980, the album was nominated for a Grammy for the Best Classical Vocal Soloist Performance.

CD track listing#

Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (“Songs of a wayfarer”), composed in 1884–1885, orchestrated and revised in the 1890s; with texts by Gustav Mahler * 1 (3:46) “Wenn mein Schatz Hochzeit macht” (“When my sweetheart is married”) * 2 (4:22) “Ging heut’ Morgen über’s Feld” (“This morning I went over the field”) * 3 (3:23) “Ich hab’ ein glühend Messer” (“I have a gleaming knife”) * 4 (5:29) “Die zwei blauen Augen von meinem Schatz” (“My sweetheart’s two blue eyes”) Lieder aus “Des Knaben Wunderhorn” (“Songs from ‘The boy’s magic horn’”) composed in 1892–1898; with traditional texts collected and edited by Achim von Arnim (1781-1831) and Clemens Brentano (1778-1842) * 5 (3:01) “Rheinlegendchen” (“Little Rhein legend”) * 6 (2:06) “Wer hat dies Liedlein erdacht?” (“Who thought up this little song?”) Rückert-Lieder (“Songs after Rückert”), composed in 1901–1902; with texts by Friedrich Rückert (1788-1866) * 7 (2:17) “Ich atmet’ einen linden Duft” (“I breathed a gentle scent”) * 8 (2:28) “Liebst du um Schönheit” (“If what you love is beauty”) * 9 (6:07) “Um Mitternacht” (“At midnight”) *10 (1:37) “Blicke mir nicht in die Lieder” (“Don’t look into my songs”) *11 (6:22) “Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen” (“I’ve become lost to the world”)

Musicians#

• Frederica von Stade (b. 1945), mezzo-soprano
• London Philharmonic Orchestra
• Andrew Davis (1944-2024), conductor

Other#

• Robert Gooch, engineer
• Mike Ross-Trevor, engineer
• Paul Walter Myers (1932-2015), producer

Release history#

Columbia released the album on LP in Europe (catalogue numbers 76828) and the US (catalogue number M-35863) in 1979 and on 1 June 1980 respectively. The LP had an insert with texts and translations, and sleeve notes (in English only) by Lionel Salter. In 2016, Sony issued the album on CD (in a miniature replica of its original LP sleeve) with a 52-page booklet in their 18-CD collection Frederica von Stade: The Complete Columbia Recital Albums (catalogue number 88875183412).

External links#

• Library catalog listings for this album at WorldCat
• . Accessed 3 December 2009.