The poster could not be more luxurious: a star mezzo, the Vienna Philharmonic and the one who is supposed to represent the “Germanic tradition” with the baton. The concert of the most exclusive festival in the world is published by the “classy” label of the market. And almost nothing happens. So, why tell you about this CD? Because analyzing a counter-example makes it possible to understand the right path. Wesendonck-Lieder of Wagner and above all Rückert-Lieder by Mahler, these are texts inscribed in sound universes. Here, the conception is done in terms of vocal colors at the very cost of caricature (“ Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen ”) with heartbreaking coldness and insignificance. Thielemann takes expressiveness away from the orchestra to play the colorist symbiosis. As an antidote, listen to Christa Ludwig again, then watch her masterclasses on YouTube. In what state would she have ended up if she had had as a pupil Elīna Garanča, one of the most gifted and hopeless singers of the last quarter century?
To see in video