Schubert

'From Janet Baker and Margaret Price to Lucia Popp and Elly Ameling, Felicity Lott and Christine Brewer to Ian Bostridge and Matthias Goerne - all the great modern lieder singers are here. The result is a blissful no-brainer for all Schubertians' (The Observer)

'From Janet Baker and Margaret Price to Lucia Popp and Elly Ameling, Felicity Lott and Christine Brewer to Ian Bostridge and Matthias Goerne - all the great modern lieder singers are here. The result is a blissful no-brainer for all Schubertians' (The Observer)

Franz Peter Schubert (* 31. Jänner 1797 in der Gemeinde Himmelpfortgrund, heute im 9. Bezirk Wiens; † 19. November 1828 in Wieden, jetzt 4. Bezirk) war ein österreichischer Komponist.

Soprano Edith Mathis has had one of the leading international vocal careers of the twentieth century and was particularly well known for her Mozart and Strauss roles. She studied at the Lucerne Conservatory and made her stage debut there as the Second Boy in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte. After singing in Zürich, she joined the Cologne Opera in 1959. Remaining with the company until 1963, she began singing the major repertory roles.

With this new b*records disc, the Miroirs Etendus company revisits one of the greatest classics of the Lieder repertoire, questioning the interpretative heritage that has long been associated with it. Pianist and artistic director Romain Louveau, baritone Jean-Christophe Laniece and soprano Victoire Bunel propose a multi-voiced Winterreise that disembodies the overused figure of the Wanderer and favors the autonomy of Wilhelm Muller's poems. Like the Schubertian motifs that seem to appear of their own accord, only to eclipse themselves, the musicians venture a depersonalized interpretation that places the figure of the stranger at the center of this lyrical spectacle.

Matthias Goerne, one of the most high-profile Schubertians of his generation, has recorded a selection of Schubert’s songs not in their original versions with piano but in orchestral arrangements by Alexander Schmalcz, Goerne’s accompanist of many years’ standing. Goerne says about Alexander Schmalcz’s arrangements: “His creativity in adapting these songs for the orchestra is enormous, while his stylistic sensibilities and his subtle approach in deploying the right instruments at the right moment are truly astonishing.” “Schubert’s ability to empathize makes him one of the most important composers in the whole of human history. (…) He created “a perfect balance between intellectuality and the greatest naturalness. With Schubert, even the most complicated melodies and forms sound entirely natural.” (Goerne) And yet what we hear on this album is “pure Schubert”, Alexander Schmalcz insists. “I have added nothing. Sometimes I fill out the voices by doubling the octave, for example. Or I write sustained chords in the orchestra in order to simulate the sound-surfaces that are the result of the use of the sustaining pedal on the piano. But my goal is to be as original as possible.”

After A Soprano’s Schubertiade (BIS2343) and Elysium (BIS2573), Carolyn Sampson and Joseph Middleton present a new recital devoted to Schubert’s songs on the theme of the changing seasons.

After A Soprano’s Schubertiade (BIS2343) and Elysium (BIS2573), Carolyn Sampson and Joseph Middleton present a new recital devoted to Schubert’s songs on the theme of the changing seasons.