Leonard Bernstein - Sinfonien 9+10 [2 DVDs] - Universal/Music/DVD

"Leonard Bernstein - Mahler: Sinfonien 9+10/Das Lied von der Erde"

"Interpreteurs"
Christa Ludwig - Contralto
René Kollo - Tenor
Israel Philharmonic Orchestra
Wiener Philharmoniker
Conductor: Leonard Bernstein

"Symphonies Nos. 9 & 10 / Das Lied von der Erde"
Filmed on tour at Berlin's Philharmonie, this acccount of the valedictory Ninth Symphony is an intense interpretation, expressing Bernstein's conviction that modern man had at last caught up with the message encoded in Mahler's last completed work. Having made this famous 1966 studio recording of "Das Lied von der Erde" in Vienna, Bernstein re-recorded this in Israel with the same searing subjectivity. René Kollo draws on the voice of a great Wagner tenor, while Christa Ludwig, the greatest exponent of the contralto songs at the time, is unbearably poignant in the final movement's fusion of elation and sadness.