Recordings of Kindertotenlieder

by Stan Ruttenberg, President, Colorado MahlerFest

There are perhaps 60 recordings of this song cycle. Mahler preferred the male voice for most of his songs but, oddly enough, there are many more good interpretations of this work by female singers. In concert, female singers tend to project better than baritones through Mahler's orchestrations, even though he reduced the size of the orchestra for his songs. On recordings, however, the male singers hold their own and the several mentioned here certainly produce great interpretations.
The earliest is Heinrich Rehkemper, baritone, with the Berlin State Opera Orchestra, conducted by Jascha Horenstein, recorded on 78 rpm in 1928. It was available as a CD from Pearl and is available again in a new remastering on NAXOS (with the Oscar fried No. 2).
Kathleen Ferrier, the incomparable British mezzo, recorded it in 1949 with Bruno Walter and the Vienna Philharmonic, now available on CD in a very fine performance. Ferrier also made it with the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, conducted by Otto Klemperer, taken from a radio broadcast for the Holland Festival in 1951, also a fine performance.
Mitch Friedfeld in his essay recommends Thomas Hampson, Vienna philharmonic, Leonard Bernstein. While an admirer of Hampson, I find that Bernstein's tempos are too sluggish.
The American baritone, Norman Foster did an excellent performance with the Bamberg SO, Jascha Horenstein conducting, but the sound is a little dim, even on the remastered set available from VOX on CD.
My own favorites begin with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, who recorded it 3 times commercially, and there are others (airchecks.) His second recording was made weeks after his wife and infant died in childbirth. Karl Böhm, while not a noted Mahlerian, conducts the Berlin Philharmonic with power and understanding, and the recording is excellent. This CD is hard to find but is worth the search, for no one can match Fischer-Dieskau in the truly heartfelt sadness and resignation he put into this work after his own personal tragedy.
My favorite for the female voice is also recommended by Friedfeld, the Janet Baker, Hallé Orchestra, John Barbirolli conducting.
Other recommended versions are by Christa Ludwig (Philharmonia, Adré Vandernoot; also Berlin PO, Herbert von Karajan), Kirsten Flagstad (Vienna Philharmonic, Adrian Boult), Maureen Forester (Charles Munch, Boston SO), Jose van Dam (Lille National Orchestra, Jean-Claude Casadesus), and Catherine Robbin (Kitchner-Waterloo SO (Canada), Raffi Armenian). Two hard to find recordings are worth searching for, probably only on LP - Rita Gorr (French National Radio Orchestra, Desiré-Emile Inghelbrecht), and Vera Soukupova, Czech Philharmonic, Vaclav Neumann.

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