San Francisco Symphony
Michael Tilson Thomas, conductor
Susan Graham, mezzo-soprano
Thomas Hampson, baritone
Repertoire
Gustav Mahler: Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen
Gustav Mahler: Rückert-Lieder
Gustav Mahler: Selections from Des Knaben Wunderhorn
Susan Graham and Thomas Hampson, two of today’s great Mahler singers, join Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony in this final album of the award-winning MTT/SFS Mahler cycle. 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.
Tilson Thomas is completely at home in Mahler's oeuvre, so there really is no discernable difference in the way he handles the orchestra in the songs or the symphonies, and admirers of his work will be impressed with his control and clarity. Graham and Hampson are among the most accomplished singers going, and their warmth and melodic smoothness are wholly appropriate to the gentleness and longing of Mahler's songs.AllMusic
"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."San Francisco Classical Review
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.San Francisco Chronicle