Thomas Hampson, baritone London Philharmonic Orchestra Klaus Tennstedt, conductor
Klaus Tennstedt is the highest selling artist on the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s CD label. This new release features recordings of music by
Gustav Mahler – the one composer with whom Tennstedt’s name will always be synonymous.
Mahler’s First Symphony, recorded live for broadcast by the BBC in 1985, is combined with a 1991 performance of Mahler’s Songs of a Wayfarer, again captured by the BBC and sung by Thomas Hampson. The performances were at the time hailed in the press as ‘beautifully focused’, and come from contrasting phases of Tennstedt’s memorable tenure as Principal Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra.
With ill health threatening Tennstedt's later concerts, his every performance with the London Philharmonic Orchestra became an event – none more so than those recorded for broadcast by the BBC which were heard by thousands.
London Philharmonic Orchestra on finer form than perhaps ever before makes these accounts unmissable.
'As a whole the performance was on that elevated and spontaneous plane which makes this conductor's concerts such vital events in the London musical calendar and endears him to his audiences.'
Alan Blyth,The Daily Telegraph 1985
'Thomas Hampson impressively sustained his long lines both here and elsewhere, finding an enviable range of colour between and within songs.'
