The Telegraph, 15 Aug 2002

James Allen

Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde, Edinburgh 2002

Treasures unearthed from the Czech heartland

James Allen reviews a series of chamber concerts at the Queen's Hall, Usher Hall

On the other side of the city, in the Usher Hall, the popularity of the £5 late-night concerts continues unabated. On Tuesday, Peter Donohoe and Martin Roscoe gave a virtuosic and thoroughly life-affirming performance of Messiaen's Visions de l'Amen. There were no heavenly moments in mezzo soprano Alice Coote and tenor Jonas Kaufmann's performance with the Edinburgh Festival Ensemble of Schoenberg's chamber version of Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde on Wednesday night. The only thing I would have cared to take away from it was Coote's vital shaping of "Der Abschied", shot through with pungent contributions from the instrumentalists under conductor Garry Walker. The rest was rough and ready, and Kaufmann's undergraduate renderings of the drinking songs were swamped by an orchestra so ardent it could have made its presence felt in this Song of the Earth from six feet under.