Mahler: Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (1956) Van Beinum/Merriman

Gustav Mahler
Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen
1. Wenn mein Schatz Hochzeit macht (0:06)
2. Ging heut' Morgen über's Feld (3:04)
3. Ich hab' ein glühend Messer (7:44)
4. Die zwei blauen Augen von meinem Schatz (10:41)
Nan Merriman, Mezzo-soprano
Eduard van Beinum, conductor
The Concertgebouw Orchestra
Recorded on December 8-12, 1956
at The Concertgebouw, Amsterdam
Mahler composed the "Lieder" around 1884-85 after an unhappy love for soprano Johanna Richter. The lyrics are his own, and inspired by his favorite book of poems, "Des Knaben Wunderhorn". He orchestrated it in the early 1890s, and it received it's premiere on March 16, 1896 with the composer conducting the Berlin Philharmonic and baritone Anton Sistermans as soloist.
Scored for medium vocal register, it is often performed by both baritones and mezzo-sopranos. Often associated with his first symphony, where the melody from the second song is prominent in the first movement, and the closing bars from the final song briefly appears after the "Funeral March", there is no direct connection between the two works. It is one of Mahler's most popular pieces.
The present recording by Van Beinum with Nan Merriman is nicely performed here.
Field acoustic restoration (2024): Paul Howard
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[@IgnatiusZaaijman]

Any recording by van Beinum warrants airtime. Thank you for the upload!

[@steveluciani]

Nice natural, warm acoustic here, compared to the already pretty good 1997 "Dutch Masters" release found on popular streaming services. You've gilded the lily! Thanks.

[@leestamm3187]

Best rework of this recording I've heard Thanks, Paul. I know these songs (and everything else Mahler wrote) like old, lifelong friends. Personally, I prefer them sung by a lyric baritone, but a number of mezzo-sopranos also have performed them quite well.

[@RS3DArchive]

The first time I heard it as a kid was with a mezzo. Of course, it works with either.

[@leestamm3187]

​@@RS3DArchive When I was first getting into Mahler during my college days in the late 60's, a close friend's classical music loving dad had an album with Fischer-Dieskau, accompanied by Furtwängler and the Vienna Philharmonic. I sort of imprinted on that.

[@niek024]

In Dutch, when you write Van Beinum's full name including the first name, you wouldn't capitalise the 'van': 'Eduard van Beinum'. But you might be using English orthography. And that's fine, ofcourse.

[@RS3DArchive]

Thanks for the input. Didn't know if the rule was same as German or not. Nobody ever calls him Beinum, it's always Van Beinum. I basically just followed the text on the sources.