Kathleen Ferrier - Mahler: Symphony No. 3 and Kindertotenlieder - Testament: SBT21422 - 2 CDs

Boult's forthright approach to the music generates an epic grandeur that impresses in its own right. Then enter Kathleen Ferrier. Her singing of the fourth movement's 'Night Song' is wondrously... — BBC Music Magazine, August 2008, 5 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 28th Apr 2008
Catalogue No: SBT21422
Label: Testament

Gramophone Awards

2008

Finalist - Historic Archive

Usually despatched in 4 - 5 working days

Mahler: Symphony No. 3

BBC broadcast: 29 November 1947, Maida Vale Studios, London
Kathleen Ferrier (contralto)
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Sir Adrian Boult

Mahler: Kindertotenlieder

Recorded: 12 July 1951, Concertgebouw, Amsterdam
Kathleen Ferrier (contralto)
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra
Otto Klemperer

About
Reviews
Explore

About

Also includes CBC Interview with Kathleen Ferrier CBC Broadcast: 10 March 1950, CBC Studio, Montreal, Canada

Reviews

August 2008

Boult's forthright approach to the music generates an epic grandeur that impresses in its own right. Then enter Kathleen Ferrier. Her singing of the fourth movement's 'Night Song' is wondrously beautiful and moving…

2010

It is difficult, even now, not to be awestruck by the professionalism and unassuming good sense of Sir Adrian Boult. In the winter of 1947-48, the BBC Third Programme took the daring and controversial decision to broadcast the complete Mahler symphonies and Nos 1, 3, 5, 7 and 8 were prepared and conducted by Boult.
His performance of the Third Symphony, a UK premiere, is lucid and unaffected. It is also exceptionally well shaped orchestrally, no mean achievement with a work the players had never seen before. The playing isn't flawless. Post-war raids on London's pool of orchestral players by Beecham and Legge had robbed the BBC SO of some of its former lustre. Passengers are clearly being carried in the horn and trombone sections yet such is Boult's professionalism the wider picture is largely unaffected.
The BBC saved none of the performances.
This off-air recording was preserved on a set of acetate discs which Jon Tolansky discovered in a shop in Manchester in 1981. Kathleen Ferrier's presence made the find doubly important. She gives an exceptionally beautiful performance of 'O Mensch!', lovingly accompanied by Boult.
What's more, transfer engineer Paul Bailey has done a remarkable job tidying up a patch of badly disintegrating sound near the end of 'O Mensch!'.
Added to the Mahler Third are a noisily recorded live 1951 Amsterdam Kindertotenlieder dryly conducted by Klemperer whom Ferrier disliked, and an interview she gave to CBC in 1950. Hearing Ferrier speak is interesting.
Dark-voiced, careful of accent, and not afraid to correct her less than adequate interviewer, she sounds not unlike Margaret Thatcher after her voice had been lowered.

September 2008

It is difficult, even now, not to be awestruck by the professionalism and unassuming good sense of Sir Adrian Boult. His performance of the Third Symphony, is lucid and unaffected. Kathleen Ferrier gives an exceptionally beautiful performance of "O Mensch!", lovingly accompanied by Boult.

2011 edition

These acetates show that Sir Adrian was an echt-Mahlerian and completely inside the idiom...An important document both for Mahlerians and for Ferrier aficionados.

Kathleen Ferrier - Mahler: Symphony No. 3 and Kindertotenlieder

2 CDs

Contents

Download queue