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I forget who it was here who posted a link to a live performance on uTube - a concert performance of an opera IIRC. One of the singers, whom I'd never heard before, was soprano Mojca Erdmann, now considered pretty hot property in Europe - and I can certainly see why. At the same time, many of her available recordings have frustrating (for me) aspects to them, such as the participation of Daniel Barenboim, or the collaboration with various HIPsters. It's SO hard to find one of her recordings where there isn't some distraction - and, believe me, I do NOT want to be distracted from Mojca!Anyway, I finally was able to get a CD-quality (16/44.1 FLAC) download (from Presto Classical) last night of Hugo Wolf's Italian Songbook. Some of the songs within this collection are of course veritable "standards" of German Lieder, and yet the collection as a whole is possibly problemmatical: most of the songs are less than 2 minutes long and some are even less than l minute! Add to this Wolf's frequent use of a Wagnerian harmonic palette, and you have something very unusual. In fact, I wish Wolf would have expanded many of these songs, even through repetition! But what we have here is veering almost to the Webernesque, at least in terms of length. I often think that it would have been great if Wagner and Wolf could have collaborated in writing music: Wolf could have restrained Wagner's excessive impulse towards grandiosity, and Wagner could have enlarged Wolf's miniaturist scope so that we would have perfectly proportioned compositions which maintained listener interest throughout! ;-)In any case, getting back to Wolf, some singers see the brevity of these songs as a challenge to characterize them to the max in their short amount of time. And you know whom I'm talking about in particular: yes, Dame Olga Maria Elisabeth Friederike Schwarzkopf! I CANNOT STAND that woman's singing - particularly in German Lieder. She CANNOT leave things alone - as if she's saying, "Ooh! Look what I can do with this word!" (or this nuance, or whatever). Listening to her, one is always aware of how she's always striving after effect after effect - so pretentious! (As Trump would say, "So sad!")
Fortunately for me, most singers of this repertoire (after Schwartzkopf) abandoned this highly precious, artifical style of singing. And Mojca is a magnificent example of a kind of "less is more" philosophy which presents Wolf's songs in the best light possible - nothing at all affected. She has one of those pure, focused voices, which the Germans love so much, and she's smart enough to know not to push it beyond its capabilities. Wolf has already done the characterizing in the music, and he doesn't need Schwartzkopf's brand of arch overrefinement from his singers. Another nice thing about this recording is that the balance between voice and piano does not artificially favor the voice (as on too many Lieder recordings, especially from the past). And Huber plays very well indeed - beautiful tone quality, while avoiding the over-characterization of some accompanists. (I won't mention any names!)
I'm a happy camper with this set - now, if only Mojca would choose worthy collaborators (like Huber) in her future recordings before she gets too old, she would really build a treasurable legacy!
Oh! Maybe you're wondering about Christian Gerhaher's contribution to this set? (The songs are evenly divided between the two singers.) Well. . . uh. . . I have to admit that I haven't listened to his tracks yet - but I will!
Edits: 03/23/17Follow Ups:
NT
Believe it or not, back when I was throwing around money as an independent producer, a music-industry insider formerly with EMI and out on his own doing a bit of this and a bit of that, asked me about new projects.I told him I was looking for a soprano to sing Strauss' "Morgen" with Nathaniel Rosen (the job eventually went to Kaaren Erickson, RIP--it was the last recording she made), because my #1 choice Alfreda Hodgson had just died.
He replied that he was pretty sure that he could deliver Dame Elizabeth Schwarzkopf. It wasn't even a matter of money--I just was not interested. In the event one of my supporters made it possible for me to pay Kaaren well. And I think Kaaren's performance is treasurable.
So others can share in its aura of quiet beauty, I will put it into a Dropbox file that will stay up until the end of the month. Then, I will take it down. We are all scholars here, so I am invoking Fair Use.
Richard Strauss: "Morgen"
Kaaren Ericson, soprano; Doris Stevenson, piano; and Nathaniel Rosen, cello
From CD JMR 10, Reverie 1997
Produced by John Marks; recorded by Jerry Bruck, Posthorn Recordings, New York City
at SUNY Purchase College Performing Arts Center
Schoeps KFM 6 Sphere stereo microphone
Mastered by Bob Ludwig
(3:42)
Good-faith commentary welcome.ATB,
John Marks
Edits: 03/24/17
One thing I've always found frustrating about accompanying this song on the piano is in the last couple of measures, Strauss extends the the second note of the theme another couple of beats, and on the piano, this extended note always kind of dies away too soon because of the piano's imperfect sustaining of tones. When a solo cello (or violin, as I've heard in Strauss's orchestration - the violin works well too) is playing this line, the problem is solved!
Anyway, nice performance and recording (to the extent I'm able to tell on my "computer system")! (I downloaded the .aif file.)
Beautiful, and superbly recorded. Thanks for sharing.
It's now safely in my Drop Box which gives me the rest of my life to figure out hos to make it play. ;-)
Duuh, that's an AIFF.
I now have made clones in both WAV and Bookmarkable AAC.
If all else fails, move it to your computer's Desktop and double-click and see what opens it--it's CDQ, so you must have a way to open it from your desktop.
ATB,
John
And sound good doing it!
Thanks!
I wouldn't care if she had a club foot.
And, I'm fully aware that ogres such as I don't get to get anywhere near women of such beauty.
I remain forever,
Severius! Supremus Invictus
The new models just keep getting better and better! ;-)
I grew up listening to that classic DFD/Gerald Moore LP, but always willing to try something else. Like you, I'm not the biggest fan of Schwarzkopf in this kind of music, though the young DFD is impressive.
N
O
. . . with Mrs. Arpad Joo singing. However, thinking back on it, I now wonder if we were decadent enough. OTOH, maybe Op. 22 isn't far enough into full Szymanowski decadence! ;-)
Oh, the orchestral songs of his decadent period cross my eyes.
"Chris, that was completely uncalled for. I am SO hurt."
But they're usually in the non-musical realm, and we probably don't need to start a discussion of that here. ;-)
N
was a recorded-live broadcast of him conducting the CSO in Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony. Passion and fire in that reading, and the race to the finish must have left the wind and brass sections gasping for air once they broke the tape. Unfortunately, his subsequent Columbia recording of the Fourth was a letdown.
Jim
http://jimtranr.com
Edits: 03/24/17
Do you mean the Teldec/Chicago recording or the Columbia/New York one? I can't find any references to the Columbia recording, but I do have most of Barenboim's Teldec/Erato (I guess Warner, now) ones. I don't remember his Tchaikovsky recordings on Teldec getting positive critical comments.
.
Jim
http://jimtranr.com
I was there for all the Barenboim CSO years and really enjoyed them. Much more than Solti
Alan
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