BaL 6.04.13 - Schumann's Myrthen

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

9.30am Building a Library
Richard Wigmore with a recommendation from recordings of Schumann's Myrthen Op.25, songs written as a wedding present for Clara.

Available versions:

Juliane Banse, Olaf Bar, Helmut Deutsch
Andrea Lauren Brown, Uta Hielscher
Diana Damrau, Helmut Deutsch
Diana Damrau, Matthias Lademann
Bernarda Fink, Anthony Spiri
Dieterich Fisher-Dieskau
Lynne Dawson, Ian Partridge, Julius Drake (download)
Peter Schreier, Norman Shetler
Shiral, Holl
Petre Munteanu, Franz Holetschek
Nathalie Stutzmann, Michel Dalberto

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Thanks again, Alpie.

Another work I don't know; another unmissable BaL.

[Nick Armstrong]

Thanks again, Alpie.

Another work I don't know; another unmissable BaL.

That makes two of us, Stanley!

[LeMartinPecheur]

As my complete recording I have this one http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_...then+partridge and am very satisfied with it, as judging by the Marketplace prices (new and s/h) I should be

Also of course an awful lot of selections and single songs. There don't seem to be very many complete recordings so I wonder how far down towards great performances of single songs Mr Wigmore will go. Very far I hope...

[mikealdren]

Maybe you don't know the cycle but I bet you know some of the songs, Widmung, Der Nussbaum, Die Lotusblume, Du bist wie eine Blume perhaps?

Mike

[gurnemanz]

Maybe you don't know the cycle but I bet you know some of the songs, Widmung, Der Nussbaum, Die Lotusblume, Du bist wie eine Blume perhaps?

Mike

Not all the songs are great and the complete cycle is not often encountered at one go. I only got to know the whole lot quite recently. Firstly with Nathalie Stutzmann who I like very much ("loamy, with a sensual sultriness" said one critic), then with two box sets:

Hyperion Complete Songs where Myrthen is shared between Ian Bostridge and Dorothea Röschmann, both excellent with Graham Johnson accompanying.

The DG Schumann Masterworks Box where the Myrthen songs are shared between Fischer-Dieskau and Edith Mathis with Christoph Eschenbach on piano.

All three are very good and I wouldn't want to pick just one.

Bostridge/Röschmann needs adding to the list. I don't know if F-D ever recorded the whole cycle on his own. Edith Mathis might need adding to him.

[verismissimo]

Maybe you don't know the cycle but I bet you know some of the songs, Widmung, Der Nussbaum, Die Lotusblume, Du bist wie eine Blume perhaps?

I've never had Myrthen as a whole. Time to remedy that.

I do have two collections of the songs listed above plus a handful of others - in the EMI LP box of Schumann and Brahms songs from 78s (Fritz Schrodter, Leo Slezak, Susan Metcalfe-Casals, Friedrich Schorr, Aksel Schiotz, Frieda Hempel, Frida Leider etc); and in the Michael Raucheisen CD box from the mid-1940s (Tiana Lemnitz, Josef Greindl, Margarete Klose, Emmi Leisner, Leo Slezak, Karl Schmitt-Walter, Peter Anders).

Much repetition of songs, but lots of great singing.

[Thropplenoggin]

... I only got to know the whole lot quite recently. Firstly with Nathalie Stutzmann who I like very much ("loamy, with a sensual sultriness" said one critic), then with two box sets...

Isn't that how Percy Thrower used to describe his ideal soil?

[Nick Armstrong]

Isn't that how Percy Thrower used to describe his ideal soil?

No seed-planting metaphors, svp! (consults house rules.... )

[Parry1912]

Turns out I've got this in DG's 'Schumann: The Masterworks' box (although they call it Liederkreis, Op. 25 - a mis-print presumably). 26 songs shared between DFD and Edith Mathis with Christoph Eschenbach. I must listen to it again.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Maybe you don't know the cycle but I bet you know some of the songs, Widmung, Der Nussbaum, Die Lotusblume, Du bist wie eine Blume perhaps?

Mike

Very true, Mike - I recognised many of the songs as they appeared. Another very good BaL, I thought (did anyone else listen?) - and congratulations to LMP for foreseeing the "winner". I had already decided that the Partridge/Dawson/Drake version was the one for me, and I thought as RW was winding-up that he was going to give the honours to Bostridge. I have none of the reservations about Partridge that he suggested and thought that this was the way I would most often like to hear them performed.

[gradus]

I enjoyed it too and thought it well done and much as I enjoyed the winning performances, I only wish that Bryn Terfel had recorded more of them and been under consideration, as his sensitivity to words allied to that voice has always fully engaged me, ever since he won the Lieder prize, partly with Schumann's help, at the Cardiff Singer of the World all those years ago.

[aeolium]

I enjoyed this BaL (and the excerpts from the selected recording this morning) mainly for the chance to hear some of the songs that I don't know, and also for some lovely singing. I mainly know those that are commonly broadcast like Widmung, Der Nussbaum, Du bist wie eine Blume etc but was glad of the chance to hear others. Among the singers featured I especially liked Lynne Dawson, Julianne Banse, Ian Partridge (one of my favourite lieder singers) and Wolfgang Holzmair; not so keen on Natalie Stutzmann, whose walnut-tree seemed to be stuck in quicksand, and Dorothea Röschmann's over-expression. I think in the Schumann songs, as with Schubert, the role of the pianist can be undervalued. Julius Drake's accompaniment was excellent in the extracts I heard, as was Graham Johnson's accompanying Bostridge and Christoph Eschenbach's partnership with Fischer-Dieskau.

There didn't appear to be that many historic recordings featured (unless you count Fischer-Dieskau as historic) but perhaps that was because few singers formerly recorded many of the Myrthen songs outside the best-known ones. I treasure the recording I have of Elisabeth Schumann singing Der Nussbaum.

[Barbirollians]

So the winner is deleted ?- a first I think for BAL since they decided to open it up to all and not just available recordings .

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

So the winner is deleted ?- a first I think for BAL since they decided to open it up to all and not just available recordings .

It's bizarre, isn't it! Well, in two senses - bizarre that CHANDOS should delete such a great recording of not-exactly-over-recorded repertoire, and bizarre that BaL should recommend it. Perhaps they've had notification of a re-release (he wrote hopefully).