Hindemith: Das Marienleben for Soprano & Piano, Op. 27

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This song cycle traces the story of Mary from birth to death. Juliane Banse, despite a slight edge to her voice, gets to grips with every word of Rilke’s poetry. — BBC Music Magazine, October 2018, 4 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 22nd Jun 2018
Catalogue No: ALPHA398
Label: Alpha
Length: 70 minutes

The Guardian Classical Albums of the Year

2018

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Hindemith: Das Marienleben for Soprano & Piano, Op. 27

Work length1:10:38

$16.50

$24.90

$33.75

Martin Helmchen, Juliane Banse

Geburt Mariä

Track length3:24

$1.00

$1.50

$2.05

Die Darstellung Mariä im Tempel

Track length9:09

$1.50

$2.30

$3.05

Mariä Verkündigung

Track length4:13

$1.00

$1.50

$2.05

Mariä Heimsuchung

Track length2:45

$1.00

$1.50

$2.05

Argwohn Josephs

Track length1:43

$1.00

$1.50

$2.05

Verkündigung über den Hirten

Track length5:12

$1.00

$1.50

$2.05

Geburt Christi

Track length3:34

$1.00

$1.50

$2.05

Rast auf der Flucht in Ägypten

Track length3:45

$1.00

$1.50

$2.05

Von der Hochzeit zu Kana

Track length4:37

$1.00

$1.50

$2.05

Vor der Passion

Track length6:55

$1.00

$1.50

$2.05

Pietà

Track length3:15

$1.00

$1.50

$2.05

Stillung Mariä mit dem Auferstandenen

Track length2:23

$1.00

$1.50

$2.05

Vom Tode Mariä I

Track length8:53

$1.50

$2.30

$3.05

Vom Tode Mariä II

Track length7:18

$1.50

$2.30

$3.05

Vom Tode Mariä III

Track length3:32

$1.00

$1.50

$2.05

About
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About

The German soprano Juliane Banse has sung the Lieder of Brahms, Schubert, Wolf, Ullmann, Strauss, Schumann, Loewe and Berg, earning a reputation for both the quality of her interpretations and the warmth of her timbre. She and her regular partner Martin Helmchen, who has just joined Alpha, have chosen to record Paul Hindemith’s song cycle Das Marienleben, composed in 1923 and revised by the composer in 1948. A bewitching, sometimes disturbing cycle whose texts, taken from the great poet Rainer Maria Rilke, retrace the life of the Virgin Mary. Fifteen poems, fifteen episodes tinged with mysticism and lyricism. They proved to be the ideal inspiration for Hindemith, whose compositional style here draws on both the power of Wagner’s operas and the subtle nuances of Debussy.

Reviews

October 2018

This song cycle traces the story of Mary from birth to death. Juliane Banse, despite a slight edge to her voice, gets to grips with every word of Rilke’s poetry.

Awards Issue 2018

Banse negotiates [the] vocal line heroically, and she is fearless and unflinching throughout. The performance occasionally feels a little airless – an effect exacerbated by a balance that to my ears favours the soprano…[Banse’s] voice itself has a certain steely stridency, too. But these characteristics feel, if anything, appropriate for Hindemith’s uncompromising writing…An extremely fine performance, then.

5th August 2018

Banse’s timbre is occasionally more strident than that of Isokoski or Janowitz, but her identification with Rilke’s text is complete and compelling.

26th july 2018

Hindemith’s vocal writing makes enormous demands – another reason the cycle is heard so rarely – but Banse makes light of them, whether it’s the dramatic intensity and almost mezzo-like richness required in some of the songs or the shining, soaring lyricism of others. Helmchen makes total sense of the piano accompaniments too, whether naggingly motoric, fiercely dissonant or neoclassically correct. It is a glorious achievement all round.

Hindemith: Das Marienleben for Soprano & Piano, Op. 27

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