Live "Lied"

This month's BBC Music magazine cover disk is another that duplicates repertoire I already have and so limits what I can post about it. It features Mahler's Das Lied Von Der Erde and is a live recording from a Prom concert of 2008 given by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra under new principle conductor Donald Runnicles with soloists mezzo Karen Cargill and tenor Johan Botha. The performance has rather a ragged and uncertain start with problems of tempo but gains in confidence and authority as it goes on. Whether Das Lied is a symphony in al but name or an orchestral song cycle is of secondary importance since it remains one of Mahler's great achievements and is to be considered at least the equal of his other output.