Mahler Le Chant de la Terre Peckova Samek Altrichter - SU4242 - Supraphon - Classique

Je me réjouissais à l’annonce d’un "Chant de la Terre" avec Dagmar Peckova, qui jadis avait gravé un beau disque Mahler. Hélas, il est trop tard ! le vibrato a défait cette voix qui ne peut plus tenir les grandes lignes de l’Abschied et essaye de sauver ce qui reste de son art en incarnant le texte quitte à le surligner. C’est plus d’une fois troublant, tant les intentions sont justes malgré la ruine de l’instrument. Trahie par sa voix, elle trouve pourtant un accompagnateur attentif en Petr Altrichter, mais même dans la version allégée pour ensemble de chambre de Reiner Riehn rien n’y fait. Alors, pour le ténor d’un bloc mais pourtant stylé de Richard Samek… mais guère plus (Discophilia - Artalinna.com). (Jean-Charles Hoffelé)

In contrast to Symphony No. 8, also known as the “Symphony of a Thousand”, another of Gustav Mahler’s vocal-instrumental pieces, Das Lied von der Erde, speaks in a highly intimate language, full of tenderness and deep sorrow, mirroring the very essence of the artist’s soul towards the end of his days. The grief, reflecting the painful events in the composer’s life and expressed in a variety of shades in all the six songs, seems to dissolve at the end of the work in the repeated, atoned “forever” , a word opening up the infinite space following the life on earth. The internationally renowned Czech mezzo-soprano Dagmar Pecková has always cherished Mahler’s music, as evinced by the highly acclaimed recordings she has made with Jirí Belohlávek, conducting the Prague Philharmonia. Her partners on the CD is the tenor Richard Samek, whose voice is known to audiences at Europe’s prominent opera houses, and a chamber ensemble, instead of a large Romantic orchestra, for which Mahler scored the piece. In order to emphasise the work’s intimacy, Pecková opted for Schoenberg’s chamber arrangement of Das Lied von der Erde. The recording has made the soloist’s dream come true, and thus added the final piece in the mosaic of her feted Mahler discography.