|
Site review by Geohominid October 18, 2008
|
Performance: Sonics: |
Schwanengesang is not strictly one of Schubert's song cycles, lacking their thematic and dramatic continuity. It is rather a collection of songs by Heine and Rellstab written in 1828 and put together a few months after the composer's death in that year. The poetic themes, nature, love and separation in the case of Rellstab, bitterness, loss and despair in the case of Heine, inspired Schubert to produce some of his greatest works. The collection was published as Schubert's Swan Song. Schubert's brother later added a song from another group from the poems of Seidl, which Schubert had been working on in the same year. Die Taubenpost (Pigeon Post) is possibly the very last composition which Schubert worked on. On this disc, Prégardien and Staier also include the rest of the Seidl group, which has other well-known songs such as Sensucht (Longing) and Der Wanderer in den Mond (The Wanderer Speaks to the Moon). The booklet writer, Walther Dürr, rightly considers that the Seidl group is truly part of Schubert's Swan Song in its widest sense.
I gave a warm welcome to Prégardien for his truly affecting reading of Die Schöne Müllerin, which was partnered by Michael Gees on a modern piano. This time he is joined by another long time associate, fortepiano specialist Andreas Staier, who plays a modern reconstruction of a Graf instrument from the period. The piano ought itself to be considered as one of the stars of this recital; far from being clangy or clattery is has most beautiful tonal qualities, varied appealingly throughout its range. Its light-weight action allows Staier to play the rapid figurations in many of the song accompaniments with breathtaking liquidity, and the slight fragilty of the treble range in this wooden-framed instrument seems to fit the domestic context admirably. Staier's is a masterly realisation of Schubert's highly inventive accompaniments, which illlustrate and illuminate the songs so profoundly.
The readings by both artists are both deeply considered and spontaneously generated. They manage to plumb the depths of feeling which Schubert magically distils from these poems with an astonishing range of feeling, from light-hearted joy to the depths of human anguish. Prégardien's voice is always fully in control, in his sotto voce wooing a young maiden or as a desperate man railing at the implacable pain inflicted by Fate. He uses vibrato sparingly, just as Staier improvises discrete ornamentation in the piano part, especially in the strophic songs, where he my arpeggiate a chord or add a mordent. The evident rapport between the performers grips the attention from first note to last.
The DSD recording was made in the famous Galaxy Studios at Mol, Belgium. This facility was specially built to eliminate all external noise from the recording venue. Staier's piano and Prégardien's voice issues from an acoustically black background, so that every nuance can be heard. The 5.1 surround adds a touch of extra atmosphere, which is appropriately that of a domestic setting, rather than a hall or church.
Challenge Records has packaged the disc in a box with an exemplary booklet. This has uncluttered design and the texts are displayed in a good sized font in both German and English. Notes and biographies are in German and English.
Lieder and art songs in general are poorly represented in SACD format so far, and Challenge are to be congratulated for producing two superb discs so far, with another of Schubert songs promised for 2009, this time with Prégardien and Michael Gees.
Recommended unreservedly for a moving and compelling recital.
|
Copyright © 2008 John Miller and SA-CD.net
|
|
