Brahms: Es träumte mir (No. 3 from Acht Lieder und Gesänge, Op. 57)

Following the iconic series of the complete songs of Schubert and Schumann, Graham Johnson’s latest enterprise traverses the complete songs of Brahms. He is joined here on Volume 2 by the wonderful Christine Schäfer, whose contribution to the Schumann song series won a prestigious Gramophone Award.

Each volume in the series takes us on a journey through Brahms’s career, from youthful settings to songs of maturity. Volume 2 includes a selection of delightful Mädchenlieder and concludes with a handful of Brahms’s intimate folksong settings.

Discerningly partnered by Graham Johnson, Christine Schäfer is in perfect voice. She sings with a pure, luminous tone, crystal clear diction and eloquent phrasing, making this a superb recital in its own right. As part of the wider survey of the complete songs of Brahms, it will take an essential place in any Lieder-lover’s collection.

For many years, Barbara Hendricks has been communicating her love of the lied in concerts and on disc. After Schumann, Schubert, Beethoven, Spanish songs and those of Poulenc, it is the turn of Brahms to find sublimation in this disc from the Swedish soprano, magnificently accompanied on the piano by her partner Roland Pöntinen and recorded between 2002-7.

Brahms composed more than 200 lieder throughout his career, though for the most part between 1851 and 1888. In the choice of texts he was generally guided by the climate or message of a poem, more than by its formal perfection; it was no doubt for this reason that he set very little Goethe to music, whose poems, he said, “are all so accomplished that music cannot be added to them”. His favourite theme was, naturally enough, love, in all its forms, whether evoking joy, optimism or nostalgia, loss, resignation, memory… One finds in these lieder authentic, personal experiences of Johannes Brahms. Caught between romanticism and classicism, he offered in his lieder music that is individual and consummate.

‘The Romantic Clarinet’ features performances by clarinettist Paul Dean and long-time collaborator pianist Stephen Emmerson, two of Australia’s most poetic instrumental soloists. The profundity of Paul Dean’s musical expression coupled with the magnitude and breadth of his instrumental palette make him a worthy interpreter of Brahms’ tumultuous Clarinet Sonatas.

The emotional turmoil and complexity inherent in these pieces paint a fascinating picture of Brahms’ emotional state as he approached the end of his life. In them Brahms fulminates and rages against the dying of the light; at his waning vitality, yet in turn these sonatas offer up tender episodes, finely spun passages seeming to portray a melancholic acceptance of mortality.

Dean offers a simpler realization in transcriptions of three songs from Brahms’ Op. 57 Lieder und Gesänge revelling in the unparalleled sensual beauty of his tone and phrase in these affecting songs. Also included on the disc is the enchanting Drei Fantasiestücke, composed by Brahms’ great friend Robert Schumann.

Paul Dean, as Artistic Director of the Australian National Academy of Music, the country’s peak music institution, is also the trusted mentor to the emerging generation of Australian musical talent. At the Queensland Conservatorium Stephen Emmerson teaches a range of courses in music literature as well as piano, chamber music and performance practice.

Together with Paul’s brother, the viola player (and composer) Brett Dean, the pair have previously recorded Mozart trios for Melba (MR301121), and Paul Dean has also recorded Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto with The Queensland Orchestra and Guillaume Tourniaire (MR301122).

Hans Mayer wrote “He knew exactly what he wanted to sing and how to go about it. The word ‘magnetism’ – so frequently misappropriated for all types of advertising – fully applied in his case.”

Beginning in the late 1940s “FiDi,” as he was already known in his Berlin years, elevated lied singing to an unparalleled level associated with his mellifluous baritone, superb vocal technique, and the credibility of his interpretations. Fortunately the persuasive powers of his early years are attested to not only by ear witnesses but by many radio recordings.

These two sets of lieder by Johannes Brahms and Ludwig van Beethoven are taken from two recording sessions held at Berlin’s RIAS broadcasting company in 1951/52.

Beethoven’s lieder did not belong to the standard repertoire at the time, and it was Fischer-Dieskau who first popularized them.