Christian Gerhaher’s recording of Mahler Lieder with the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal under Kent Nagano is his first recording of the great Mahler cycles with orchestra.  The disc contains Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, the Kindertotenlieder and the Rückert Lieder.  This is singing of the highest class with great beauty, no lack of power and intense attention to the text.  It’s hard to imagine a singer being more in this music than Gerhaher.  Being Gerhaher, it’s quite individual and quite restrained (much less exuberant than Fischer-Dieskau) but without sounding unduly mannered.  It sounds exactly right and yet no-one else would sing these songs quite the same way.  The accompaniment from the Montreal orchestra is also very fine with great clarity of texture and lovely playing of the important woodwind solos.

The recording quality is excellent with a judicious balance between voice and orchestra and a limpidity that does justice to the clarity of the orchestral playing.  Full texts and translations are provided.