A Chamber Version of Mahler

The notion of downsizing such an avid practitioner of gigan tism as Gustav Mahler may seem preposterous. Yet much of his music enlists large forces to create crystalline chamber-music textures rather than density and decibels.

Mahler’s symphonic song-cycle “Das Lied von der Erde” is a case in point: large forces frequently used to create the most intimate effects, as Arnold Schoenberg seems to have acknowledged.

The “seems-to” qualification refers to observations made by Leonard Stein, that peerless fount of Schoenberg lore, that the so-called Schoenberg chamber arrangement of “Das Lied” didn’t go much beyond a few suggestions or jottings as to how the task should be accomplished.

The two, just-released recordings of this exciting and decidedly viable rarity refer to it as a chamber version by “Arnold Schoenberg and Rainer Riehn.”

The notes from neither CD give any indication of who Herr Riehn may be, when he accomplished his task (it was published in 1983, long after Schoenberg’s death) or how much of the transcription is his work and how much Schoenberg’s. If, as this listener has been led to believe, the handiwork is overwhelmingly Riehn’s, the man deserves our thanks for a difficult job exceedingly well done--as well as Schoenberg himself might have done it.

This chamber version retains the low-voiced female and high-voiced male soloists of Mahler’s original, with an ensemble comprising string quartet, double bass, one each of flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon and horn, plus percussion and keyboards (piano, harmonium, celesta).

While there are instances when this version seems several sizes too small to do justice to the original--the fourth song, “Von der Schonheit,” is much too raucous (and unsubtle) in the original to work here--on the whole the notion is a surprisingly successful one.

The French Harmonia Mundi recording (901477) enlists a superbly accomplished group of French instrumentalists, Ensemble Musique Oblique, skillfully but on the whole rather too cautiously conducted by Philippe Herreweghe, a specialist in choral and Baroque music.

The competition is on a Swedish label, BIS (681), and employs Finnish musicians: conductor Osmo Vanska leading the Chamber Ensemble from his Lahti Symphony with admirable sweep and intensity.

Where Herreweghe seems to be working hard to keep Mahler’s emotions from overflowing the intimate medium, Vanska fearlessly projects “Das Lied von der Erde,” with all its earthiness, sentimentality and glorious emotional excesses intact--irrespective of the medium. And his instrumentalists are with him every step of the way, with notably strong contributions from the players on whom both Mahler and the arranger(s) place the greatest burden, the first violinist (Sakari Tepponen), hornist (Pertti Kuusi) and oboist (Jukka Hirvikangas).

Vanska is also blessed in his vocalists. Monica Groop, busy with the Los Angeles Philharmonic this season, is perfectly suited to her task, her accurately tuned, lightweight mezzo--perhaps too light for the full-orchestra version--lending a contrasting youthful grace to the texts’ world-weariness, while Jorma Silvasti, Music Center Opera’s Faust earlier this season, is superbly in command of both the lyric and dramatic aspects of the tenor songs.

Hans Peter Blochwitz, Herreweghe’s tenor, is alert to every textual nuance, but taxed to the breaking point by the high tessitura of the opening “Trinklied.” His colleague, Birgit Rimmer, a gifted newcomer, though darker-voiced than Groop, also projects a certain welcome youthfulness in her delivery, and she has an attractive, solid instrument at her disposal.

A program of arrangements (Montaigne 789011) unquestionably by Schoenberg showcases an ensemble anchored by the excellent Arditti String Quartet and conducted by Michel Beroff, who in his more familiar guise as a pianist specializing in some of the thorniest 20th-Century repertory has been too little heard from lately.

The largest piece here is the chamber version of Mahler’s “Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen,” scored for the same ensemble as that heard in “Das Lied von der Erde,” with Mahler’s baritone solo part intact. It is sung with considerable sensitivity but severely limited vocal means by Jean-Luc Chaignaud.

Ironically, these “Wayfarer” songs, while originally scored for a much smaller orchestra than that of “Das Lied von der Erde,” sound thin and pale in the hands of Schoenberg’s wee band, in large part because there is less solo scoring in this early work of Mahler’s.

However, the remainder of the present program is delightful: the touching Busoni-Schoenberg “Berceuse elegiaque,” Schoenberg’s delectably dinky arrangements of Johann Strauss Jr.’s “Roses From the South” and “Emperor” waltzes, and a rare Schoenberg tidbit, his “Weihnachtsmusik”--Christmas Music--based on familiar carols, including “Stille Nacht” (Silent Night).