Billed as the first digital recording of the composer's original piano version with two voices, this two-disc set of
Mahler's 24 settings of poems from Des Knaben Wunderhorn is better in concept than in reality. There have been other recordings of the original piano-accompanied songs with solo singers -- notably,
Thomas Hampson's with
Geoffrey Parsons -- and other recordings of the songs sung with two voices -- famously,
Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau -- but this recording is the first to combine the two approaches. But while the concept is undeniably intriguing, the realization here is regrettably less than persuasive. Undeniably, soprano
Diana Damrau has a warm, appealing voice; baritone Iván Paley has a strong, agile voice; and pianist Stephan Matthias Lademann supports them both with unstinting sensitivity. But to some listeners at least, their interpretations may seem too exaggerated. Separately,
Damrau tends toward the coy and coquettish and Paley tends toward the gruff and bearish, while together they tend toward the smug, the sentimental, and the too easily self-amused. Perhaps with a more restrained performance, these discs might have been winners. As things stand, however, the concept is better than reality. Telos' music's digital recording is quite close and very vivid.