Mendelssohn: Schilflied, Op. 71 No. 4

As Richard Wigmore notes in his characteristically scholarly and elegant booklet essay, ‘Fischer-Dieskau’s narrative flair, mastery of word-painting and gift for fixing a scene in the mind’s ear made him a natural for the ballads of Carl Loewe, a composer once well described as a 19th-century incarnation of a medieval strolling minstrel’.

Digitally remastered in 2007

This recording is an exploration of Robert Helps’s ‘subtle sound world’ (ClassicsToday.com on Naxos 8559199), and his shared history with Spectrum Concerts Berlin. Highly regarded as a ‘musician’s musician’, Helps is featured as both composer and pianist. Postlude is suffused with an atmosphere of reminiscence, and the flow of ‘endless melody’ in the Piano Quartet is comparable to Scriabin. Associations with the Second Viennese School are heard in the poetic Quintet and the virtuoso Fantasy, while the two Piano Trios mark the stylistic boundaries of his career. Helps’s Shall We Dance for piano (CD 2, Track 12) was among his last recordings.

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."

This recording includes a bonus video track to be played on a computer, showing Gudrun Sidonie Otto and Wolfgang Brunner performing the “Hexenlied” in the studio.

Auf Flügeln des Gesangs (On Wings of Song) is far and away the most popular of Mendelssohn's songs. Heard on this CD with selection of his earlier lieder this is another fine release from Carus. The tenor Hans Jörg Mammel, who enjoys an international reputation for his Lieder singing, offers with this selection, impressive insights into Mendelssohn’s Lieder. He is accompanied by Arthur Schoonderwoerd on a historic pianoforte.