Review: CHRISTIAN GERHAHER MAHLER RECITAL at Alice Tully Hall

Christian Gerhaher, baritone

Gerold Huber, piano

Saturday, December 17, 2016 at Alice Tully Hall

Last year, Marilyn Horne stood on the stage of Carnegie Hall and asked her audience, "is the art of the recital dying?" Indeed, juxtaposed against the recent explosion of multi-media extensions and gimmicks designed to titillate and augment the audience's concert-going experience, the simple recital seemed to be struggling to remain relevant, let alone attract new audiences.

Fear not. If Lincoln Center's "Art of the Song" series can continue to program concerts like Christian Gerheher's all-Mahler recital at Tully Hall on Saturday, the art of the recital will continue to live on long after the gadgets and gimmicks have been forgotten. Gerhaher has been called "the most moving singer in the world" and is considered by many the successor to Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau in the realm of lieder, and his recital, accompanied by his longtime collaborator pianist Gerold Huber, provided the most compelling case imaginable to justify the hype.

Mr. Gerhaher is an extraordinary artist capable of conjuring up immense power and exquisite delicacy in the same breath. His command of his instrument and the material it traversed transcended the limitations of a simple piano and vocal performance, bringing the audience sublime glimpses of otherworldly beauty. Mahler's penchant for marshaling enormous forces of orchestra and chorus weren't missed even in the slightest way. The utter simplicity of piano and voice laid bare the core of the works in all their filigreed magnificence.

The evening consisted of a healthy selection of excerpts from Mahler's "Song of the Earth," "Rückert-Lieder," and "Des Knaben Wunderhorn." The program began with "Die Einsame im Herbst," from Das "Lied von der Erde," the epic song cycle that Leonard Bernstein called, "Mahler's greatest symphony!" Loosely based on a collection of ancient Chinese poems, "Die Einsame" tells a cautionary tale of desolation and the coming of winter, and Mr. Gerhaher delivered the text like a weary sage schooling his young acolyte.

The Rückert-Lieder maintained the theme of isolation and abandonment, and Mr. Huber's plaintive accompaniment provided the ideal tableau upon which the Mr. Gerhaher's velvety baritone could effortlessly float. The first half of the program concluded with two selections from Mahler's song cycle, "Des Knaben Wunderhorn."

"Revelge" and "Der Tambourg'sell" were the final two songs Mahler wrote for the cycle and they share a militaristic theme and that of a drummer. The first tells the tale of a wounded soldier who continues to beat his drum as he dies and the second speaks of a former army drummer, imprisoned and awaiting the gallows - seriously heavy material deftly handled by baritone and accompanist, and the audience rewarded them with an enormous ovation.

The second half of the program began with a continuation of the Wunderhorn lied, "Wo die schönen Trompeten blasen." The short piece seemed but a warm up for the magnificent final selection: "Der Abscheid," the seventh and final movement of "Das Lied von der Erde." This epic half-hour long journey is a musical mine-field that singer and accompanist navigated with abandon. The piano version of the piece lack some of the bombast of the orchestral version, but Mr. Huber delivered all the colors of the orchestration with great detail. The final echoes of the text seemed to disappear into thin air; the effect was mesmerizing.

The tumultuous applause from the audience was rewarded with a delightful encore of "Urlicht," from "Wunderhorn" which has become best known as the fourth movement of Mahler's 2nd Symphony.

The evening was as close to perfection as one could possibly hope for and stated in stentorian tones that the rumors of the death of the recital are greatly exaggerated.

Peter Danish

Classical Editor