BaL 9.06.18 - Schubert: Die schöne Müllerin

**Richard Tarleton** · 01-06-18, 09:23

For absolutely no logical reason I prefer this sung by a tenor and Wintereisse by a baritone...perhaps just what I'm used to. The protagonist of this cycle is rather a drip - the miller's daughter was well out of it. I only have two versions - Schreier/Schiff and DFD/Moore. I saw Schreier perform it with Geoffrey Parsons in the QEH in the early 70s - his voice has that plangent quality which captures the self-pitying tone of the guy perfectly. Actually the narrator in Winterreise could do with a course in positive thinking as well.

**Eine Alpensinfonie** · 01-06-18, 10:15

When I was a teenager, my uncle lent me his double LP DF-D 1951 set. I listened to it many times. Since then, all other interpretations have been found wanting.

I suppose I really should get hold of a CD and see whether the magic persists.

**LeMartinPecheur** · 01-06-18, 20:04

EA: there's (yet?) another Peter Schreier version still available in here. with Stephen Zehr (fp), rec. 1980. Guess the fp may give it novelty value at least.

I have this box but not played much of it

**Eine Alpensinfonie** · 01-06-18, 20:07

Is it generally available?

**visualnickmos** · 01-06-18, 20:09

Oh, no - NOT Schubert lieder! Just too 'Victorian' posh drawing-room after-dinner entertainment, for me!

**visualnickmos** · 01-06-18, 20:11

The only lieder I have genuine love for is Richard Strauss and Mahler - call me a philistine! Maybe I am….

**LeMartinPecheur** · 01-06-18, 20:18

Originally posted by Eine Alpensinfonie View Post

Is it generally available?

Yes, it's so listed on 'proper' Amazon https://www.amazon.co.uk/Schubert-Li...eder+on+record 17CDs for just £26.84. Clearly one for visualnickmos to snap up!

**teamsaint** · 01-06-18, 20:20

Originally posted by visualnickmos View Post

The only lieder I have genuine love for is Richard Strauss and Mahler - call me a philistine! Maybe I am….

Looks like you are more of a fill-a-stein, Mossy.

Cheers.

( Looking forward to this, one....)

PS, tell me I am wrong, but is there a strong tendency for BaL to give the Baroque/Choral/song stuff to women reviewers, and the big Romantic/Classical/C20 orchestral stuff to men ?

**richardfinegold** · 02-06-18, 00:10

I got to know this via Wunderlich on DG. Frankly, I really didn’t care what he was singing about (and tend to agree with Richard T), but that voice! Every time I hear another singer in the work I become impatient wishing it was Fritz...

**LMcD** · 02-06-18, 07:02

Will the top recording from among the many available be declared the Lieder of the Pack?

**verismissimo** · 02-06-18, 08:08

In my rather vast collection of Schubert Lieder LPs and CDs, I have only two Miller cycles, neither of them in Alpie's fine list:

Julius Patzak with Michael Raucheisen in 1943
Ian Partridge with Jennifer Partridge in 1973

Time for something more recent, I think.

**mikealdren** · 02-06-18, 08:27

My one and only recording with Gérard Souzay isn't there either.

**visualnickmos** · 02-06-18, 08:52

Originally posted by teamsaint View Post

Looks like you are more of a fill-a-stein, Mossy.Cheers.

( Looking forward to this, one....)

PS, tell me I am wrong, but is there a strong tendency for BaL to give the Baroque/Choral/song stuff to women reviewers, and the big Romantic/Classical/C20 orchestral stuff to men ?

PS Yes, I think there is such a tendency. Are they (women reviewers) paid less?

**Mal** · 02-06-18, 13:30

Originally posted by visualnickmos View Post

Oh, no - NOT Schubert lieder! Just too 'Victorian' posh drawing-room after-dinner entertainment, for me!

... call me a philistine.

I also find it difficult to warm to Lieder. But is it really the "posh Victorian" aspect that's the problem? The posh Victorians also had chamber music in the drawing room. Are you going to dismiss Beethoven's string quartets for being too posh and Victorian? And, as the drawing room is unlikely to be the culprit, are you also going to dismiss all orchestral and Operatic music before Mahler?

So let's dig deeper, like Schubert digging into the text of a minor poet on one of his off days, and ask, why Lieder *really* inspires that "Oh No!" reaction in many classical music lovers.

For me, Lieder are just too simple - a singer and a piano, and the pianist isn't doing much. No Lieder has anything like the variety and complexity and excitement of Beethoven's sonatas! I like lots of things going on—the many strands of a symphony or tone poem, a seething orchestra; the four voices of a string quartet, joining, parting, joining again in an endless web. Texture, density, multiple lines, and an overwhelming, engulfing sound—that’s what I like.

Also there's all that German romantic poetry to put up with, usually written by a minor poet. Brooks, millers, maidens, deaths, swans, endless tears, it quickly palls!

In summary, I'm not calling you a philistine for dismissing Lieder, I'm calling you someone with a taste for better things, unlike the current producer of BAL & Record Review who seems to be obsessed with Lieder. We had Britten's Winter Words just a couple of weeks ago, now we get a Schubert cycle. One lieder cycle a year is enough, surely!

BaL 9.06.18 - Schubert: Die schöne Müllerin

BaL 9.06.18 - Schubert: Die schöne Müllerin

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