Suitespot

Peter Burwasser on Classical

She was a most unlikely Mahler singer. Kathleen Ferrier was a demure young lady from the English countryside, raised on church music and English folk songs. Mahler’s music is hugely emotional, angst-ridden, heaven-storming -- the very antithesis of lock-jaw British reserve. And yet, over a half-century after they were recorded, her performances of Mahler’s vocal music, especially the Kindertotenlieder and Das Lied von der Erde, are in their own class. Simply, there is Ferrier singing Mahler, and then there is everyone else.

Her accompanist in both works was conductor Bruno Walter, who was Mahler’s last assistant. He described his collaboration with Ferrier as a highlight of his career. Das Lied von der Erde (Song of the Earth) was written by the dying composer as a paean to all that is beautiful in life. The closing pages are an evocation of the last breaths of the artist’s creative existence. By the time Ferrier learned the work, she had been diagnosed with terminal cancer, and the irony of this intersection of art and reality is overwhelming in her performances. Her voice was not conventionally pretty, but her dynamic range was enormous, and when her phrasing wells up to encompass the outsized emotional demands of Mahler’s music, there is no room for cover; the sound just crashes over you. Her fearless, staring-into-the-sun style was matched only by her contemporary, Maria Callas, a very different singer in so many ways, but both voices share the magical gift of leaping through the years -- and the scratches and hiss of old recordings -- directly into our modern consciousness.

At her death at the age of 41 -- in the midst of playing Orfeo in London -- Ferrier left a slim but precious catalog. A recent Decca tribute set provides an overview of her repertoire, which weighed heavily with the traditional material for an English contralto, namely, British folk music and liturgical music from Handel and Bach. Her radiant warmth and artistic integrity makes all of these performances glow brightly from within.

But it is the Mahler recordings that have seared a place in musical history. Collectors might quibble over the competing merits of the different versions of Das Lied von der Erde that she recorded. By my count, there are three extant editions, all with Walter at the helm. The 1953 Decca recording, the most widely available, is my favorite, but they are all magnificent. You certainly won’t go wrong with the budget-priced Naxos recording. As The Philadelphia Orchestra is about to embark on a historic Mahler cycle, I can scarcely think of a better introduction to this glorious music.