Thomas Hampson Voices of Our Time
October 2004 Reviewed by: Wes Marshall Format: DVD	(all ratings out of 5): Overall Enjoyment Picture Quality Packaged Extras Sound Quality

Thomas Hampson is one of the world’s greatest living baritones, a man capable of superb performances of everything from Baroque religious music and Beethoven to Broadway show tunes. He is also a generous man: after 25 years in the concert hall and nearly 100 recordings, he has donated a portion of his money to a foundation devoted to research and furthering interest in lied. One of his foundation’s first projects was to support the International Gustav Mahler Society in Vienna in preparing definitive critical versions of Mahler’s Das Knaben Wunderhorn (The Youth’s Magic Horn) songs. In this recital we are blessed to hear Hampson singing from these definitive versions.

Mahler was inspired by the pastoral poetry collected by Achim von Arnim and Clemens Brentano in the early 19th century, at the dawn of the Romantic era, and published as Des Knaben Wunderhorn: Alte deutsche Lieder. Using the poetry as his texts, Mahler wrote these songs over a period of 19 years and used them in a number of settings, casting them both with piano and orchestra and leaving the choice of voice open to the interpreter. Hampson has developed a recital revolving around three topics: Fables and Parables of Nature and Man, Scenes of Separation and War, and Transcendence of Life.

There are too many wonderful moments here to go through them individually. The great piano highlight for me is Wolfram Rieger’s performance on "Der Tambourg’sell" (chapter 17) where he must imitate a military drummer at a funeral march. He injects a sense of terror into the song by carefully modulating the volume and attack, especially as he quietly hammers the low bass keys. The vocal highlight comes at the end in "Urlicht" (chapter 27), a brave choice, if for no other reason than the public’s familiarity with it as the fourth movement of Mahler’s Second Symphony.

Hampson and Rieger take the piece very slowly, cherishing every word and every note. At the end, I was stock still and holding my breath, just like the audience. You are unlikely to hear it better sung in this or any other lifetime.

TDK’s DVD is beautifully photographed with discrete camera movements and perfect lighting. The close-ups show that Hampson has an opera singer’s expansive facial expressions, which may bother some, but Mahler was such an emotional extrovert. I can’t help but think he might have approved. Throughout the program, both Hampson and Rieger discuss Mahler’s compositions with a nice combination of scholarly knowledge and excited devotion.

I do wish that TDK had offered branching that would allow us to bypass the narrative, because after several viewings, you’ll just want to watch the music making. The sound is clear and clean, with the DTS track sounding far superior to the Dolby. There are no extras on the DVD itself, but the booklet is filled with fascinating information and is well written.

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