Mahler: Des Knaben Wunderhorn - Genz, Vignoles (2008)

Stephan Genz's light, warm and cultured baritone is especially fine in reflecting the ghost voices and moonlight serenades of Mahler's folk-inspired anthology. Yet more attack is surely needed for the prisoner in the tower and the what should be the increasingly desperate pleas of the starving child is 'Das irdische Leben'.

Composer: Gustav Mahler
Performer: Stephan Genz, Roger Vignoles

Reviews: In reviewing a recording of this work in 29:6, Henry Fogel made the following observation: “The piano version of this wonderful group of songs (I refer to it as a group rather than a formal cycle because Mahler didn’t consider that it had to be performed in a certain order as a complete cycle) is a valuable and interesting contrast to the orchestral version, but certainly not a replacement for it. The music gains in intimacy and perhaps in directness of communication, but loses a great variety of color and range present in the orchestral setting.” These are sentiments with which I whole-heartedly agree. In addition, the songs can be performed by a baritone-soprano (or mezzo) team, or by baritone alone, as here. I personally favor the former, and hold in special esteem the CBS recording, long deleted, featuring Leonard Bernstein as pianist accompanying Christa Ludwig and Walter Berry, once available as a bonus LP paired with the version for orchestra featuring the same performers. As I have written in the past, appreciation of vocal performances seems to me to be particularly subjective, so the following should be taken in that spirit.


My reaction to theses performances was conditioned—and, some would say prejudiced, and I can’t deny it—by my preferences for the two-voice team and for the orchestral version. In the trio of songs from 1892, “Der Schildwache Nachtlied,” “Trost im Unglück,” and “Verlorne Müh,” Genz negotiates both genders in creditable fashion, becoming quite tender in “Der Schildwache”; “Verlorne Müh,” however, verges on caricature in its maidenly verses. Genz excels in “Revelge,” where his virile, confident tone is apposite, and in “Lob des hohen Verstandes,” for which his straight-faced sincerity is winning—a forced comic tone ruins this song, since the satire is best served undiluted. That other late masterpiece, “Der Tamborsg’sell,” is less impressive: I felt that its grimness was overdone, especially when compared with “Revelge.” For “Des Antonius von Padua Fischpredigt,” the moderate tempo works well, and Vignoles is masterful, an equal partner with his vocalist. Vignoles does wonders with dynamics in “Wo die schönen Trompeten blasen,” but here the absence of the orchestra is critical—and obviously no fault of the performers.


I miss the female voice in “Das irdische Leben,” where the young boy and his mother seem more sympathetic in that guise—particularly if one thinks of this song paired with its heavenly sequel in the finale of the Fourth Symphony. I thought the same would be true of “Urlicht,” and perhaps even more fatally, since the alto solo in the Second Symphony is the reference here; to my surprise, this performance is a revelation, the simplicity of the piano setting and the serenity of Genz’s performance casting a benediction on the entire program.


Recordings featuring Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Thomas Hampson have set the standard by which any new performance will be judged (their accompanists, Daniel Barenboim and Geoffrey Parsons, respectively, are hardly negligible, either). Genz and Vignoles have produced a worthy successor to those discs. An earlier Mahler CD, featuring 21 songs performed by this team, received high praise in 28:4 from Paul Ingram. For admirers of that earlier recording and for those who have no qualms about missing orchestrations and female partners, this disc is an easy recommendation.