Die Wunderfrauen

This disc, Vol. 4 four of Singphoniker's five-volume collection of the complete part-songs for male voices, may be the weakest in the series. All the others have one or more indisputable masterpieces on them. Even Vol. 1, with its half-dozen drinking songs, and Vol. 2, with its half-dozen composition exercises, still have a few masterpieces. But while Vol. 4 has no composition exercises and few drinking songs, it has the lowest number of masterpieces and the highest number of nearly unknown Schubert songs. But there are still Schubert songs and so great a composer of songs was Schubert that even his least-known songs are often still wonderful.

When an ensemble seeks to record a complete body of work, there will inevitably be some works of lesser quality among the masterpieces. In the second volume of the Singphoniker's collection of Schubert's complete part-songs for male voices, there are the masterpieces the sublime early version of Gesang der Geister über den Wasser (D. 538) and the transcendent choral version of Sehnsucht (D. 656) and then there are the composition exercises that Schubert wrote for Salieri when he was in his early teens.

Of all Schubert's songs, the part songs for male voices are probably the hardest for contemporary audiences to take seriously. The sweetness of the harmonies recalls the saccharine harmonies of barbershop quartets, the emotions of the lyrics recall the sentimentality of greeting cards, and the sheer ubiquity of drinking songs recalls the inebriated bowling banquets of the Beneficent Order of Elks. But while Schubert's part songs for male voices are in many ways the precursors of all these smarmy things, they are themselves quite lovely.

Although some of the other volumes in the Singphoniker's collection of Schubert's complete part-songs for male voices have greater masterpieces – Vol. 1's Nachthelle (D. 892) and Vol. 5's Gesang der Geister über den Wasser (D. 714) – Vol. 3 has the highest number of good songs and the lowest number of composition exercises, which may make it the most easily appealing volume. Starting with the glorious Wein und Liebe (D. 901) and ending with the exquisite Grab und Mond (D. 893), there are hardly any songs in this collection that are not first-rate Schubert.

The group’s newest studio album, a phenomenal collection of cover versions that span multiple decades and genres, is set for release on May 28 in all formats including digital, CD and vinyl.