Urlicht 


Resurrection, Obsession and Mahler's 2nd 

Lately, I'd been listening to the Uri Caine Ensemble's Urlicht - an often moving interpretation of some of Mahler's work on the always fantastic Winter & Winter record label. I always seemed to get hung up on the title track. Caine & al. filter the deep contralto song of the fourth movement of Mahler's 2nd to a wailing violin credenza - hesitating, passionate. I needed a new Mahler 2.
There is nothing wrong with my old recording - lush like Solti is - but it is an LP, a little worse for wear. So yesterday I pick up Gilbert Kaplan's version , knowing nothing about Mr. Kaplan other than there were laudatory stickers on the CD.
Talking to the folks that evening (before I had listened to the whole CD - I immediately on purchase skipped to Maureen Forrester's tender rendition of Urlicht), Pa mentioned that he had read an article in the Wall Street Journal on Kaplan. An independently wealthy Mahler fan, Kaplan has made a career out of conducting Mahler's Second, researching the scores to find what exactly Mahler intended.
Although the WSJ article is pay only, there is an interesting interview in the Independent with Kaplan.

I'll have to listen to it more again, and more closely, but my first impressions of the recording is crisp and detailed, but willing to sink into the warm milk bath when the time comes in the last movement.  

Posted: Thu - December 18, 2003 at 08:07 PM           |

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