Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde; Vogt/Gerhaher et al

You wait years for a baritone version of Mahler's valedictory song cycle, and then two come along in relatively quick succession. Kent Nagano's performance of Das Lied von der Erde with Christian Gerhaher as one of the soloists follows just a few months after Michael Tilson Thomas's with Thomas Hampson, which was part of his Mahler cycle with the San Francisco Symphony. As always, Gerhaher is well worth hearing, and with his fabulous range of colour and immaculate diction he makes a better case for a male voice, rather than the usual mezzo, in this cycle than any baritone I've heard since Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. But Gerhaher's exquisite singing is really all that Nagano's performance has going for it. The orchestral playing is first rate and Mahler's textures are expertly sifted, but the effect is bland - the surface of each song is hardly ruffled. The tenor is Klaus Florian Vogt, whose small-scale performance and bleating tone never come close to fulfilling the demands of Mahler's vocal writing; Gerhaher fans will need to hear his contribution, but otherwise Mahler fans needn't bother.