Lieder and Art Song for Beginners/Intermediates

[rauschwerk]

I have a Wolf volume on my shelves but the only song I have ever been asked to play is Verborgenheit, which I enjoyed. I really ought to buy a recording and get to know some others! Any recommendations?

[EdgeleyRob]

Apart from Elgar's Sea Pictures, I'd suggest to a newcomer, Like to the Damask Rose and The Shepherd's Song.
Mendelssohn's Volkslied especially when sung by Margaret Price and Janet Baker's recital of English song that includes the intensely beautiful The Fields are Full.
Amongst the finest of all English song recitals on disc, Bryn Terfel's recording of VW's Songs of Travel, Butterworth's Shropshire Lad and various delights from Finzi and Ireland.Brahms's Mainacht and Schumann's Nussbaum and Widmung are other songs I'd try to play to someone willing to explore the song repertoire. I mentioned Granados above but there are many gems in the Spanish repertoire that seldom get performed, more or less anything by Falla and Montsalvatge is worth listening to.

That is a wonderful cd.

[Stanley Stewart]

And so a thread born of enthusiasm is in danger of becoming a series of gripes about vibrato and pronunciation. Any chance of more discussion of actual music? I only ask.

Well said, rauschwerk'

I've just finished revisiting Gerald Moore's, Am I Too Loud? - the memoirs of a piano accompanist, (1966), a well-thumbed six bob Penguin paperback and was delighted to see teamsaint's thread on Lieder with several fascinating contributions.

My baptism of fire in Lieder was at the 1947 EdinburghFestival, Maggie Teyte's recital at the Usher Hall, mainly Debussy & Hahn, and was thrilled by her presence even in the nether regions of the auditorium - but totally bemused by the lack of melody. I was 16 at the time! A decade later, I settled in London and accidentally stumbled on the Wigmore Hall, impressed by its Edwardian facade, after quitting Oxford Street. Within a year or two, I was a student at RADA and quickly absorbed the flow of narrative in a text accompanied by its rhythm, pace and nuances and with practice how to develop interpretation from the subtext. For me, it isn't accent or enunciation of, say, a German, French or Italian text. Some years later, my galley years in rep, I played the Father in Pirandello's, Six Characters in Search of an Author, and in mid-rehearsal, instinctively fell into the Italian energy of the text and the character came to life. Around this time, I'd begun to grasp the codification of ideas in Rudolf Laban's notation - erm, I think I was a bit snooty about the principles at RADA tuition - but with several years experience and regular practice, it became a useful guide to creativity and later I expressed my thanks to Yat Malmgren and partner, Christopher Fettes, who quit RADA for their own Theatre Centre in Camden.

Gradually, I began to acquire complimentary aids focussed on Lieder with texts and discussion; Alan Blyth's two vol set, Lieder & Song, Cambridge Univ Press, mid 80s, together with constant reference companions, Songs of Robert Schumann, Eric Sams, John Reed's, A Schubert Companion and Richard Wigmore's, Complete texts of Schubert, etc - they go to the heart of the matter in creativity. So, in Erlkonig, I can sense the mood/moods of the poem; the frenzied child, the consoling father, the ghostly pursuer, ALL have different voices and the singers physiognomy changes for each of them. Mr Moore also taught me the essential difference why the recitalist, unlike the actor, seldom makes a movement. It is all in the voice, mastery of enunciation and facial expression. Such refinement is in itself an accomplishment and I've watched with intense interest at the Wigmore Hall how craftsmanship becomes an art.

My shelves also contain two 3CD sets, EMI Classics, SCHUBERT, Vol 1, Lieder on Record, 1898-1952: Vol 2, ditto. A treasure trove of great Lieder performances over half a century.

[verismissimo]

I have a Wolf volume on my shelves but the only song I have ever been asked to play is Verborgenheit, which I enjoyed. I really ought to buy a recording and get to know some others! Any recommendations?

For a starter kit, rauschwerk, I wouldn't want to be without EMI's 'Hugo Wolf: The Anniversary Edition', which includes the Italian and Spanish Lieder Books, Goethe, Eichendorff, Morike and Michelangelo songs and more. Eight CDs with Schwarzkopf, DFD, Bar, Von Otter, Bostridge and Thomas Allen, with accompanists Deutsch, Moore, Pappano and Parsons.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wolf-150th-Anniversary-Elisabeth-Scwarzkopf/dp/B0031IHBD2/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1445241480&sr=1-1&keywords=hugo+wolf+anniversary

[teamsaint]

some excellent suggestions and food for thought on this thread

here's something that really bowled me over earlier this year.

Great songs, wonderful singer, what more could you want?

[gurnemanz]

some excellent suggestions and food for thought on this thread

here's something that really bowled me over earlier this year.

Great songs, wonderful singer, what more could you want?

Thanks for the link. Schwarzkopf was allegedly not happy about the "kitchen maid" sentiments expressed in the cycle, but sung for what it is: the uncomplicated devotion of a young bride, wife, mother and widow, it can be exquisite. My favourite, in capturing just this, remains, I think, Irmgard Seefried. (eg Süßer Freund here}.

[gradus]

Two lovely voices,thanks for postiong them. Can't say I've much sympathy with the Schwarzkopf view, although I've heard singers these days describe the sentiments expressed in the song as embarrasingly old-fashioned and perhaps they are.
Ever come across the live Janet Baker live recording from Snape available on a BBC cd? Well worth hearing.

[Stanley Stewart]

Irmgard Seefried - divine! And so many distinguished singers, Sena Jurinac, Christa Ludwig, Elly Ameling, Elisabeth Soderstrom, Pierre Bernac and Peter Pears, on the platform at the Wigmore Hall, perhaps late in their career, but still natural communicators, every appearance a master class. 'Tis in my memory lock'd!

[DublinJimbo]

and while we are on the subject, this astonishing and wonderful website is absolutely indispensable for those of us with nothing more than O level French.

http://www.lieder.net/lieder/get_text.html?TextId=7768

Total agreement here. This is an invaluable resource. I can't stress enough how important (indispensable, really) it is to have the words at hand when listening. There've been some fallings-out within our music group between those who insist on the words and those who merely savour the musical sounds, but I'm firmly in the let-me-have-the-words camp.

When it comes to recordings, it really is unforgiveable not to be given a booklet which contains the words (and translation, of course).

[aeolium]

One of the great glories of lieder is that you don't have just have a vast repertoire of wonderful songs but the many different ways in which great singers down the ages have interpreted them. Here is yet another Nacht und Träume sung by one of my very favourite sopranos (and one adored by her accompanist on this recording, Gerald Moore):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeCXPa3KC1w

And the same partnership again in one of Mozart's loveliest songs, Abendempfindung:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAq1PZdf66Y

[verismissimo]

Total agreement here. This is an invaluable resource. I can't stress enough how important (indispensable, really) it is to have the words at hand when listening. There've been some fallings-out within our music group between those who insist on the words and those who merely savour the musical sounds, but I'm firmly in the let-me-have-the-words camp.

When it comes to recordings, it really is unforgiveable not to be given a booklet which contains the words (and translation, of course).

The words always came first!

[vinteuil]

... sometimes the words can be so banal as really not to add anything to the experience. The texts to many Italian renaissance songs, and the wearisome stuff in many Bach cantatas come to mind. In such cases, for me it is a musical 'sound' experience that draws me in and rewards. But yes, in many German lieder I am glad when I have worked out what the words mean, and the two strands combine.

I don't go all the way with kea here - but I largely agree :

I don't like words in music at all—they are, at best, a distraction, at worst, competition. This is just a personal preference though (the part of my brain that processes music also seems to do language, so they end up working against one another). It generally pleases me that most singers sing in such a way that the words are more or less incomprehensible—although it displeases me that most of them sing with pretty extensive vibrato, so as a result there are a lot of songs I don't listen to because even though they're great music they've never been interpreted in a way that appeals to me. (This applies to most repertoire after ca 1820)

(As for what I listen for in songs... well, the sounds, I guess!)

.

[Beef Oven!]

and while we are on the subject, this astonishing and wonderful website is absolutely indispensable for those of us with nothing more than O level French.

http://www.lieder.net/lieder/get_text.html?TextId=7768

I've only just looked at this - brilliant! Many thanks ts

Although one is perfectly happy listening along with only an outline of the meaning of the words in one's head, sometimes one can derive great enjoyment from following the words, translation and meaning. I, for one, will refer to this often.

I have the Ian Bostridge book (Kindle edition), "Schubert's Winter Journey: Anatomy of an Obsession", but the translation of the words appears below, rather than to the side of the original. I downloaded it a few days ago, prompted by this thread!

Btw, this is a wonderful read and a really useful narrative on Winterreise. I would recommend this book very highly.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00OUXGF5W?keywords=ian%20bostridge&qid=1445255468&ref_=sr_1_1&s=books&sr=1-1

[Mary Chambers]

I have the Ian Bostridge book (Kindle edition), "Schubert's Winter Journey: Anatomy of an Obsession", but the translation of the words appears below, rather than to the side of the original.

Btw, this is a wonderful read and a really useful narrative on Winterreise. I would recommend this book very highly.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B...s=books&sr=1-1

I would recommend this excellent book, too. I also have The Book of Lieder by Richard Stokes, which has a vast number of texts and translations. Richard Stokes was Ian Bostridge's German teacher at school, and triggered Bostridge's interest in these songs.

[CallMePaul]

Also try Brigitte Fassbaender with Jean-Yves Thibaudet, if still available. A grewat lieder singer who retired too early (to become an opera manager in Innsbruck).