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Many of us have our favorite lieder singers from past eras such as Fisher Dieskau, Prey, Popp, Ludwig, etc... Among current singers, which artists or recordings of lieder do you really like?
I am partial to Thomas Quasthoff (even though he retired from the stage recently), Gerald Finley, Werner Gura, Anne Sophie Von Otter, Joan Rodgers and especially Bernarda Fink, to name a few... Am listening to Fink's Brahms song recital now and it is sublime:)
Harry Z
Follow Ups:
A while back in Stereophile I recommended his Dichterliebe with Kristian Bezuidenhout on Harmonia Mundi.
It's a brief rave, so here it is in full:
I have a lot of ground to cover, and so I have space to give only a brief but equally enthusiastic recommendation of tenor Mark Padmore and fortepianist Kristian Bezuidenhout's new Dichterliebe: settings of Heinrich Heine verses by Robert Schumann and Franz Paul Lachner (CD, Harmonia Mundi HMU 907521, footnote 1). This one's a no-brainer-if you're familiar with Padmore's singing, you'll want this disc; if you're not, you should hear it. If you know Schumann's Liederkreis and Dichterliebe, you'll want this disc; if you don't, you should hear it. Amazon.com has sound bites up. Listen to the purity of Padmore's high notes in "I Wandered Under the Trees" and "Lovely Cradle of My Sorrows." Sure wish I could sing like that.
Padmore's German accent seems very credible to this nonspeaker (but longtime hearer) of the language; the credited coach did well. The sound is so good that I at first thought this was an SACD. It was recorded by Brad Michel at London's AIR Lyndhurst Studios, which gave me a little jolt of cognitive dissonance. A particularly nice touch is that Kristian Bezuidenhout plays an 1837 Erard fortepiano. This is period-correct for this music, but more important, it does not sound like a thunky old PTA-room piano-it actually has some high frequencies. Some. It and Bezuidenhout's sensitive playing add much to the charm and drama of this program. Highly recommended. A no-brainer, in fact.
Footnote 1: Heine wrote not only romantic but political poetry as well. His most popular political poem, "The Silesian Weavers," is about the labor uprising of 1844 that gave its name to Pete Seeger's folk group, The Weavers.
# # #
And just as a note, since writing that I have heard via the magic of streaming Olaf Bär's Dichterliebe, and even though I don't think that Bär is still before the public, I thought it was a phenomenal version. Check it out if you can.
JM
Thanks John. Both this and the Olaf Bar sound like great recommendations. I really like Bar's singing, and I have Padmore's Handel arias CD and like it a good deal.
Much appreciated-
Harry Z
I must say that Padmore's Handel Arias CD, which I have, and which is very good, had not prepared me for his Dichterliebe....
Strange!
I have no idea what the take-away from that should be. Was Handel too formal for Padmore really to engage with? Was Schumann's proto-modernism more congenial to him? Did the challenge of singing in German make the difference? The period-correct piano?
I really like the Padmore but the Bär is even better, and I would not have known it except a library patron's family donated about (I am not joking) 1,800 LPs, and this guy collected LPs as long as they still made them, and he had lots of German ultra-audiophile DMM remastered classical vocal and opera, and the Bär was one and so I dialed it up on streaming and, holey schemoley... .
ATB,
jm
A fellow I know has a live recording of Bar (a radio broadcast, I believe) on master tape and it is stunning...
I really like Jonas Kaufmann's Die Winterreise. It's the only performance of this cycle by a voice higher than a baritone that I like.
On the other hand, Christian Gerhaher leaves me cold. On the one occasion I heard him live (Mahler Des Knaben Wunderhorn, Cleveland Orchestra/Boulez), his top notes were weak and strained, and he seemed to be trying to puff out his voice somehow to make it seem bigger (shouldn't have been an issue in the sold-out, relatively small Severance Hall). This was recorded for DVD/CD, and I'm guessing that the performances of his that made it to the final issue were from other nights that week--voice was a little better, but still not interpretively interesting.
The set were released starting in 200 and spanned several years. The set consists of 37 CDs. It includes all major lieder artists.
He also has other sets with just as memorable performances.
Enjoy the music.
I have quite a few of them, mainly from well known singers like Lucia Popp, Margaret Price and Brigitte Fassbaender. I pulled one out last night with Mathias Goerne based upon a recommendation (reminder:) from this thread and glad I did!
Am also collecting the Strauss and Brahms cycles on Hyperion and they are quite fine. Would love to hear sets Johnson has done by French composers as well. Have you heard any of these?
I don't have any of the French repertoire....yet. I have the complete Schubert and Schumann cycles. They are really amazing in depth and breadth.
Enjoy the music.
I forgot about the Schumann! I also have it and love that set, although the layout makes it a bit difficult to find specific songs and sets are done by multiple singers, if my memory serves...
For what it's worth, Eric LeSage's solo and chamber music sets of Schumann are equally wonderful and I can't recommend them highly enough.
Harry
My current fave is Ruth Ziesak - she's been around for a fairly long time, but she still sings extremely well. My wife and I just saw her in the Brahms German Requiem last month, and she still sounds great. (My wife in particular was very moved by the whole performance.) Ziesak has an additional advantage in that many of her Lieder recordings are on mid-priced labels:
In particular, I think that the way she does those Suleika songs by Schubert is so perfect and on my wavelength that I just can't imagine other performances of these songs rising up to her standard. Of course, this is again just personal taste.
And finally, I heartily recommend one of her recordings of Bach's Cantata No. 51 (Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen), even though this is obviously not a Lieder type work and even though none of these recordings have ideal engineering or string accompaniments. (The trumpet obligato parts are played very well of course.) Just thrilling! (Although here I recognize that there are other excellent performances of this work too.)
I just listened to some of her Schubert and Brahms via youtube. A lovely voice and fine artist.
While not possessed with as touching or as beautiful an instrument as Fink or say, Margaret Price (who is peerless most of the time, as far as I'm concerned) for me, I rather like Ziesak's singing. Thanks for the recommendation.
I just listened to some of her Schubert and Brahms via youtube. A lovely voice and fine artist.
While not possessed with as touching or as beautiful an instrument as Fink or say, Margaret Price (who is peerless most of the time, as far as I'm concerned) I rather like Ziesak's singing. Thanks for the recommendation.
...and keeping my eyes on a young soprano from Italy who I have heard live and very impressed.
Rosa Feola. Her voice had a holographic bell like tone even in higher register. Interesting as usually I get annoyed with soprano but her velvety voice didn't.
Great recommendations! I have heard both and like them very much. I have a disc or two of Goerne singing Schubert and he is excellent. Would love to hear Damrau in Mozart and Strauss operas and lied..
Harry
wish she would come around to Chicago but no Diana sighting for next season either.
Meanwhile, here's her Strauss CD with Thielemann.
Nice. I'll take a listen to that. Seems that I neglected to mention Ian Bostridge... and I'm sure that there are a few others as well:)
I am fond of his Schubert fragments with Andsness.
They are rather good, aren't they?
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