Mahler: Songs of Youth and Awakening album review – exuberance and intensity from fine cast of singers | Classical music

The second volume in Signum’s survey of Mahler song focuses on the three books of Lieder und Gesänge that the composer worked on in his 20s, rounding off the album with his first vocal masterpiece, the Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen.

These early ditties are highly individual, often quirky and invariably full of interest. Joseph Middleton, whose instinctual pacing and sensitive support of the vocal line is matched by an array of illustrative colours drawn from the piano, has assembled a fine cast of singers. Sophie Rennert opens with Frühlingsmorgen, her full-bodied mezzo and expressive diction mining this lilting Viennese gem for textual nuance. She’s equally persuasive in Ich ging mit Lust durch einen grünen Wald, one of Mahler’s most luminous songs. Ablösung im Sommer, a bizarre celebration of a cuckoo that has fallen off its perch, is given a deliciously theatrical workout by Katharina Konradi.

If Mauro Peter’s tenor feels a little effortful in the galloping Scheiden und Meiden, he’s keenly affecting in Zu Straßburg auf der Schanz, the voice offset by Middleton’s sombre pianistic drumrolls. Finally, Simon Keenlyside is a respectable choice for the Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen. His investment in Mahler’s texts brings dramatic intensity to these emotionally febrile songs, through the upper range comes under audible pressure at times.

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