Schumann: Dichterliebe op.48; Liederkreis op. 24; Lachner: Lieder / Mark Padmore (Tenor), Kristian Bezuidenhout (Fortepiano) – Tonträger gebraucht kaufen

wie neu

69 Min.

2010

CD

120 g

Album: NEU und EINGESCHWEISST (OVP). STILL SEALED

Schumann: Dichterliebe, Liederkreis; Lachner / Mark Padmore

Release Date: 11/09/2010
Label: Harmonia Mundi Catalog #: 907521
Composer: Robert Schumann, Franz Lachner
Performer: Kristian Bezuidenhout, Mark Padmore
Number of Discs: 1
Recorded in: Stereo
EAN: 0093046752125


Works on This Recording

1. Liederkreis, Op. 24 by Robert Schumann
Performer: Kristian Bezuidenhout (Piano), Mark Padmore (Tenor)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1840; Germany
2. Sängerfahrt, Op. 33: no 6, Im Mai by Franz Lachner
Performer: Kristian Bezuidenhout (Piano), Mark Padmore (Tenor)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1831-1832; Germany
3. Sängerfahrt, Op. 33: no 8, Die Meerfrau by Franz Lachner
Performer: Kristian Bezuidenhout (Piano), Mark Padmore (Tenor)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1831-1832; Germany
4. Sängerfahrt, Op. 33: no 10, Das Fischermädchen by Franz Lachner
Performer: Kristian Bezuidenhout (Piano), Mark Padmore (Tenor)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1831-1832; Germany
5. Sängerfahrt, Op. 33: no 12, Ein Traumbild by Franz Lachner
Performer: Kristian Bezuidenhout (Piano), Mark Padmore (Tenor)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1831-1832; Germany
6. Sängerfahrt, Op. 33: no 13, Die einsame Träne by Franz Lachner
Performer: Kristian Bezuidenhout (Piano), Mark Padmore (Tenor)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1831-1832; Germany
7. Dichterliebe, Op. 48 by Robert Schumann
Performer: Mark Padmore (Tenor), Kristian Bezuidenhout (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1840; Germany


Notes and Editorial Reviews

Rich and sympathetic communicative powers.

Mark Padmore (b.1961) started his musical activities as a clarinetist and singer. During the early 1980s he sang with The Sixteen and the Hilliard Ensemble. With the Hilliards he can be heard on ‘Perotinus’, an ECM album that has meanwhile achieved legendary status. In the 1990s he worked as a soloist with William Christie, Philippe Herreweghe and John Eliot Gardiner, and was much sought after as the Evangelist in the Passions of Johann Sebastian Bach. In 2002 he appeared for the first time in a lieder recital, singing Schubert’s ‘Die Schöne Müllerin’. His accompanist, Roger Vignoles, encouraged him to concentrate on the lied repertoire, and as a result, Padmore now spends a large amount of his time on the recital podium. He performs with seasoned accompanists: Julius Drake, Graham Johnson and Malcolm Martineau, and has also forged performing relationships with famous pianists: Imogen Cooper, Till Fellner and Paul Lewis. The latter accompanied him in very successful recordings of Schubert’s great song-cycles, ‘Die Winterreise’ and ‘Die Schöne Müllerin’.

For his most recent recital tour Padmore opted for a collaboration with fortepianist Kristian Bezuidenhout, an artist who was invited by Harmonia Mundi to record Mozart’s complete solo piano music. Padmore dedicated his tour to the poet Heinrich Heine, who was a fount of inspiration for Franz Schubert. Robert Schumann visited Vienna in 1838, ten years after Schubert’s death, and became acquainted with the older composer’s Ninth Symphony and the song cycles ‘Winterreise’, ‘Müllerin’ and ‘Schwanengesang’. Despite the fact that Schumann initially looked down on the Lied phenomenon, but in 1840, just married to Clara, in his new role as family man felt obliged to provide a more substantial income. Considering the popularity of the lied genre with the middle class in those days, publishing songs was a logical way to bolster his wages. Schumann’s preference for Heinrich Heine was no coincidence. Heine’s ‘Das Buch der Lieder’, published in 1820, enjoyed an immense popularity and inspired nineteenth-century composers to write no less than 8000 songs. On this CD five of those are placed between Schumann’s opp. 24 and 48. They were selected from the volume ‘Sängerfahrt’ by Franz Paul Lachner (1803-1890). During the last two years of Schubert’s life Lachner befriended Schubert, who was six years his senior. Lachner’s music pays homage to Schubert, and some of his settings employ texts that were also set by Schubert and Schumann. On this recital they are ‘Im Mai’, the opening song of ‘Dichterliebe’ (‘Im wunderschönen Monat Mai’), and ‘Das Fischermädchen’, also known in a setting by Schubert. They are a resounding testimony to the difference between talent and genius.

On the recordings of Schubert’s ‘Die Winterreise’ and ‘Die schöne Müllerin’ pianist Paul Lewis opted for a modern Steinway. Kristian Bezuidenhout decided upon an 1837 Erard, not exactly a brand that one would associate with Robert and Clara Schumann. Add that Bezuidenhout has his very own and very free way with Mozart, as performed on his first disc for Harmonia Mundi, and a bit of trepidation might well be expected from the prospective listener. Luckily things work out to the contrary: Bezuidenhout lets the music speak for itself, and his instrument sparkles and buzzes quite stylishly. This is exactly the kind of sound on which Padmore’s light tenor rides easily.

Padmore’s voice fits in the tradition of his countrymen Peter Pears, Anthony Rolfe Johnson and Philip Langridge - sadly the last two passed away last year. It carries less weight than Langridge’s, and sounds slightly less warm than Rolfe Johnson’s. Another difference from his great predecessors is that his lighter tenor is not (yet) capable of an operatic role like Peter Grimes. On the British music scene Ian Bostridge, who has an even lighter sound, is another singer who occupies himself on the same level with this repertoire. He has also recorded Schubert’s great cycles, and has also sought the collaboration of famous pianists like Leif Ove Andsnes and Mitsuko Ushida. Both tenors excel in very clear diction, a phenomenon that appears more often with vocalists that have to sing outside their native language. A slight British accent is a small price to pay.

The differences in interpretation between Bostridge and Padmore are enormous. In a few words: Bostridge ‘interprets’ and in doing so discovers all kinds of detail that detracts from the essential. In Heine’s woods he pauses at every tree, thus managing to distract from the music and putting his own persona between the composer and the public. Padmore lets the notes speak for themselves, tries to erase himself, and puts the composer center-stage. Better yet, in his own words, he wants, above all, the poet’s voice to be heard. Both artists have a substantial following. The content of this disc was also the program of Padmore and Bezuidenhout’s recital tour. The concerts they gave in Carnegie and Wigmore Halls met with large audiences and were very favorably discussed in the press. Both Padmore and Bezuidenhout possess rich and sympathetic communicative powers; on CD we have only the sound to consider, but the enjoyment does not suffer. In the song ‘Im Rhein, im heiligen Strome’, with its baritonal opening register, Padmore lacks somewhat in strength, but is royally compensated for that in Bezuidenhout’s sharply etched rhythms - something that seems to stem from his experience in older music.

‘Dichterliebe’ belongs with ‘Winterreise’ and ‘Müllerin’ in the top five of most beloved song-cycles, and has, in the course of recorded history, been taped numerous times. Peter Schreier immediately springs to mind as an unforgettable performer in this repertoire. Every generation has its own favourites, who might well be intolerable for the next one - something that becomes apparent upon listening again to the classic performance of Lotte Lehmann and Bruno Walter. Mark Padmore is a tenor for the twenty-first century and in Kris Bezuidenhout he has found an ideal partner. The choice of the instrument plays no mean role in all of this. Together they make a new noise, which has been captured in ideal acoustic circumstances.

-- Siebe Riedstra, MusicWeb International

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BBC Music MagazineChristmas 2010
from a circumscribed palette Padmore draws an intense and startling range of colour...the evident intelligence and directness of both performers reaches an almost perfect unity of approach through their mutually supportive expression
****

Classic FM MagazineJanuary 2011
Padmore, a singer celebrated for his intelligent performances, superb diction, and ethereally pure voice, here surpasses even himself...Nothing is overstated and nothing forced...Bezuidenhout's accompanying is wonderfully responsive and atmospheric too...anyone who appreciates subtlety, detail, and the virtues of objectivity will be unable to resist.
*****

Gramophone MagazineDecember 2010
Padmore's sweetness of tone is capable of growth and intensification, and he is sensible to the subtleties of modulation. Kristian Bezuidenhout...feels and thinks with the singer, makes his points without exaggeration and misses nothing

Presto Classical13th December 2010
Bezuidenhout gets a wonderful sound out of his 1837 Erard. There is clarity and crispness, but it never sounds brittle. Meanwhile he achieves a richness of sound and colour which I didn’t think possible from such an instrument. Padmore is in excellent voice and both performers seem in perfect unity – Bezuidenhout feeling and breathing like a singer, and Padmore sensitive to all the subtle harmonies and modulations in the piano part.
Chris O'Reilly

The Guardian4th November 2010
Bezuidenhout plays an 1837 Erard...giving the kind of clarity and crisp articulation in the middle and upper registers that certainly gives an extra piquancy to the textures...Padmore's performances of both the Heine cycles are as restrained and as carefully enunciated and musically polished as one might expect, his tone almost disembodied at times
***

The Observer28th November 2010
Padmore, in superb voice, brings a vivid new confidence to the German text ...and he and Kristian Bezuidenhout tackle those recital favourites "Mit Myrten und Rosen" (from Liederkreis) and "Ich grolle nicht" (from Dichterliebe) with a freshness that bears plenty of repetition.

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Nachdem er sich kürzlich zusammen mit dem Pianisten Paul Lewis mit zwei Liederzyklen von Schubert profiliert hatte, setzt sich Mark Padmore nun mit den berühmtesten Liederzyklen von Schumann auseinander. Die seltener aufgeführten fünf Stücke von Lachner ergänzen eine streng den Prinzipien der historischen Aufführungspraxis verpflichtete Interpretation – wozu insbesondere die Wahl des Instruments und die Spielweise des Hammerklavierspezialisten Kristian Bezuidenhout beiträgt.

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Pressestimmen:

»The finest, most musical British tenor around today.«
The Guardian


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