Jessye Norman simply soars in Gustav Mahler's "Kindertotenlieder"

I have decided to, from time to time, feature performances of works of classical music which I simply love - and which may be topical to us, in the present day.

For my first such feature, I have decided to open with Gustav Mahler's tragic and beautiful Kindertotenlieder (Songs on the Death of Children). The interpretation I have chosen to recommend is that of Jessye Norman's, with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and with Seiji Ozawa conducting, in Frankfurt am Main, in December 1988.

The first song of this five-song cycle laments the fact that the sun keeps rising whilst the writer's child has passed away, in the night, and ends with ironic praise directed at the "light of the world". The second songs paints the writer's sudden understanding that the beautiful flames which shot out of his children's eyes were but temporary; the children were already making their way "home, towards the place whence all light comes". The darker, third song evokes the disappointment the writer feels, each time that the mother of their child walks into the room without the deceased child. The fourth song describes the fact that the children have embarked on a journey, ahead of the parents, that the latter have not embarked, and cannot yet embark, upon. The fifth and final song describes a storm that has taken away the writer's children, against his will; however, the song ends on the hopeful note that the children are now resting, "as if in their mother's house, protected by God's hand, frightened by no storm".

Jessye Norman delivers a highly believable account of these sensitive songs. Her tone quality is truly excellent; that dark, velvety tone which is so well known for is simply perfect for Gustav Mahler's dark, brooding music, and Friedrich Ruckert's tragic poems; none more so that in the final song, where she truly does come into her own; the final stanza of this final song (In diesem Wetter, in diesem Braus!) is one of the most magical moments in Mahler's music, and Ms Norman meets the challenge superbly - a truly shiver-inducing delivery.

The orchestra, in the much more than just capable hands of Seiji Ozawa, provides an often beautifully balanced and sensitive accompaniment, at times conversing with Ms Norman's solo in an understated way - and at other times, as they show in the last song, in a highly contrasting manner: a perfect depiction of a chaotic storm, before that simply magical ending, which reminds me somehow of the eternal ending to Mahler's Der Abschied, from Das Lied von der Erde.

There are, of course, so many other recordings of this work available, online and offline. The one by Kathleen Ferrier/Vienna Philharmonic/Bruno Walter, in particular, springs to mind to me. However, for the reasons given above, as well as for the fact that this version seems, to me, to be more understated than many others, and thus communicating Ruckert's grief (as set to music by Mahler) more believably, and therefore (to my ears) more effectively - as well as because of the simple enjoyment I derive each time I hear Ms Norman interpret such a giant work, I have decided to make this version today's recommended interpretation of today's chosen classical music piece. I hope you enjoy it at least as much as I have.