BERLIOZ: “LES NUITS D’ETE. MAHLER: FIVE SONGS...

BERLIOZ: “LES NUITS D’ETE. MAHLER: FIVE SONGS FROM “DES KNABEN WUNDERHORN.” FIVE RUCKERT SONGS. Jan DeGaetani, mezzo-soprano; Eastman Chamber Ensemble conducted by David Effron. Bridge BCD-9017. DeGaetani was already stricken with leukemia when she participated in the sessions for this anthology in May, 1989 (she died four months later). Such was the artist’s intensity that despite evident breath problems, thinning tone and unidiomatic French and German, she casts a spell in the romantic Berlioz-Gautier miniatures, and confers an otherworldly glow on the Mahler songs. Philip West’s chamber orchestrations are tasteful, Effron’s conducting is sympathetic. Yet, despite the heroism of the whole enterprise, DeGaetani’s substantial contribution to the vocal literature is best savored elsewhere on record.