Schubert: Herbst, D945

Born in Munich, Werner Güra has a reputation especially as an interpreter of lieder. His recordings for harmonia mundi, including the great cycles of Schubert, Schumann and Wolf and vocal ensembles by Brahms and Schumann, have all been widely acclaimed.

Concluding a highly acclaimed series of Schubert song cycles, Wigmore Hall Live now release the much-anticipated Schwanengesang. Recorded live on the Wigmore stage by Christopher Maltman and Graham Johnson in April 2010, the song cycle was collated after Schubert’s death by the publisher Haslinger and, through the works of three poets, depicts a despairing man tormented by his lost love. Often sorrowful, sometimes enraged, this performance never fails to search deep within the emotive poetry, truly exploring the drama that unfolds through the fourteen poems. Famed for his superlative Schubertian pianism, Johnson features here not as an accompanist but as an equal, as Maltman’s stunningly colourful voice displays an infinite palette of timbres, carefully and subtly nuanced throughout.

The Dutch bass-baritone Robert Holl is one of the great Lieder singers of our time. A recent review of a recital from The Times illustrates his extroardinary technique and mesmerising power: ’Dutch baritone Robert Holl delivered a Schubert programme with such natural force and passion that resistance was impossible … Holl’s huge presence, and huge, dark voice can transform itself at will into the lightest breath of spring, rising into a hushed head-voice with total ease, or fining itself down to recreate the vision of a wakeful gondolier and a sleeping Serenissima.’

In Holl’s first recording for Hyperion, he brings his tremendous artistry to Schubert’s last song-cycle.

The songs in Schwanengesang were described by Schubert’s publisher Haslinger as ‘the final blooms of Schubert’s creative muse’. Schwanengesang contains some of Schubert’s greatest works. It tells no particular story, but the two sets of songs are linked by their poetic themes—nature, love and separation in the case of the settings of Rellstab, bitterness, loss and despair in the case of Heine.

This recording includes two further songs. The first, Herbst, though also to a text by by Rellstab, did not appear in Schwanengesang, and the manuscript was not discovered until the 1890s. A highly atmospheric nature-piece, its texture anticipates Mendelssohn’s songs on a similar theme, with its tremolando right hand and sinuous, fateful left-hand melody. The other extra is Der Winterabend from 1828. The poem by Leitner creates the image of a contented man, contemplating not just the winter evening, but by implication also his approaching death (the silvery moonlight is a symbolic pall cast over the objects of his life). In his extensive booklet notes, Roger Vignoles writes that ‘If one wants to know how Schubert felt about his own mortality, it is worth noting the loving care he bestowed on this song. Every turn of phrase, every modulation is perfectly judged, as in the hushed sidestep (through a major third, his favourite interval) that announces the entry of the moonlight into the poet’s chamber’.

The American baritone Barry McDaniel was one of the outstanding singers of the post-war era. As a successful opera singer and Lieder interpreter, he enjoyed a long and eventful career, both in Germany and abroad. Despite numerous performances and many recordings for radio and television, he nonetheless remained largely unnoticed by the media, partly because his name almost vanished in the shadow of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, who was five years his senior. Unjustly so, since the two singers were equals as artists, albeit with different characters. Today, Barry McDaniel is hardly mentioned in specialist literature and one searches in vain for CDs since, until now, recordings from radio archives have not been phonographically processed. However, Audite now presents a première double CD of Lieder sung by Barry McDaniel. These studio recordings from the archives of Radio Berlin-Brandenburg (formally Sender Freies Berlin) were made between 1963 and 1974 with Hertha Klust and Aribert Reimann as accompanists.

This selection of songs by Schubert, Schumann, Wolf, Duparc, Ravel and Debussy reveals diverse facets of McDaniel’s artistic personality. His interpretations are characterised by an interleaving of knowledge and naivety, feeling and craftsmanship, expression and impeccable singing. Apart from his immaculate technique, his accent-free German is particularly remarkable.

Barry McDaniel moved from the USA to Germany in 1953 in order to further his studies. He then gave his first song recitals, together with Hermann Reutter, and later began a career as an opera singer. In 1961 he was engaged at the newly re-opened Deutsche Oper Berlin, where he remained for thirty-seven years. At the same time, he gave guest performances at the Vienna Staatsoper, the Metropolitan Opera New York, the Frankfurt Opera and the Munich Opera Festival, as well as broadcasting for radio and television. In addition, Barry McDaniel gave numerous song recitals, for example in Stuttgart, Karlsruhe, Hanover, Brunswick and Berlin, including, in the latter city, the first ever song recital at the newly built Philharmonie in 1963. Today, the 81-year-old baritone declares: “Whatever I sing, I have to believe in it.” That is exactly how these recordings sound.

Mentors like Gerhard Schulz (Alban Berg Quartet) and Yuri Bashmet have already predicted that a great career lies ahead of the 30-year-old violist Nils Mönkemeyer. He is already one of his generation's leading viola players, with many competition wins to his name, including the UK’s Parkhouse Award in 2009, and the International Yuri Bashmet Competition in 2006.

For his Sony Classical début Ohne Worte (Without Words), the young musician from Bremen and his English piano partner Nicholas Rimmer have put together a recital programme that highlights the viola's 'voice-like' qualities. To this end, lieder by Schubert, Mendelssohn and Schumann have been arranged as songs without words for the viola. The recital is completed by Schubert's Arpeggione sonata in the version for viola and piano.

In selecting the songs to arrange, Mönkemeyer chose songs such as Schubert’s Ständchen, where the emphasis is first and foremost on the vocal line rather than the lyrics. The same applies to the songs by Schumann, which include lieder from well-known song cycles Liederkreis and Dichterliebe.

By way of contrast, the remaining works heard here by Mendelssohn and Schubert are arrangements of original instrumental pieces. Mendelssohn composed his Songs Without Words for the piano, while Franz Schubert originally wrote his Arpeggione sonata of 1823 for the six-stringed instrument of the same name. "There are fewer acrobatics involved on the viola", says Mönkemeyer; "the melodies flow more naturally and major leaps are avoided. That makes it all the more clear that the underlying idea that inspired this sonata is that of a song."

The eminent lyric tenor Christoph Prégardien is represented on disc with more than a hundred and twenty titles. His recordings of the German Romantic Lied repertoire have been highly acclaimed by public and press alike and have received many major international awards. He recently began a new long-term collaboration with Challenge Classics, the first fruit of which was a recording of Schubert’s “Schöne Müllerin” with pianist Michel Gees, (CC72292).

On this recording of another of Schubert’s great lieder cycles, “Schwanengesang”, he is joined by the highly-regarded pianist Andreas Staier.

Written in August 1828 shortly before his death, the 14 songs by Franz Schubert given the collective title of “Schwanengesang” by his publisher Tobias Haslinger are in reality made up of two sets. There are seven songs on texts by Ludwig Rellstab and six on texts by Heinrich Heine in a common manuscript along with a single Lied, Die Taubenpost, on a poem by his friend Gabriel Seidl (D 965 A). Die Taubenpost is perhaps Schubert’s last song, possibly even his last complete composition of all, although Der Hirt auf dem Felsen was apparently also written in October 1828. The Viennese poet Gabriel Seidl was the source of a whole series of poetic texts that Schubert set to music between 1826 and 1828. Some of these were solo lieder and some were polyphonic songs.