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The Complete Recitals on Warner Classics
Christa Ludwig
Classical - Released March 9, 2018 | Warner Classics
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This eleven hour box set marks the 90th birthday of German mezzo-soprano Christa Ludwig, whose phenomenal career, which ran from 1950 to 1990, still inspires admiration in her colleagues (of course) and a growing number of music fans. She has collaborated with the greatest musicians of her age, most notably Herbert von Karajan, Leonard Bernstein and Otto Klemperer. She also shone in the genre of the Lied, with a brilliance comparable to Elisabeth Schwarzkopf's or Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau's – and of course she regularly performed with both – and these recordings with Gerald Moore and Geoffrey Parsons bear witness to her talents. A note on the brand-new releases that form part of this edition: some performances are published here for the first time*: these are Lieder with orchestra by Alban Berg (tracks 144 to 146), Max Reger (track 137) and Richard Wagner (track 124) as well as Lieder with piano by Hugo Wolf (track 14), Franz Schubert (tracks 15 and 16, 62 to 66) and Stille Nacht (track 89), which were left aside when they were first recorded, either because of the limits of the 33rpm format, or just because of a decision by the artistic director. This collection also sees some pieces re-published for the first time since their release on LP, such as the piece by Gluck (track 88), several of Brahms' Lieder (tracks 15 to 19, tracks 104 and 107). The recital of Brahms which Christa Ludwig would record alongside Walter Berry appears here in its entirety for the first time since it was first released (from track 67 to track 89, see above). © Qobuz
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Lieder & Balladen
Stéphane Degout
Art Songs, Mélodies & Lieder - Released March 6, 2020 | harmonia mundi
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The mystery of the ballad comes from the way it is told.’ (Goethe). Epic to the point of hallucination, this genre calls for skill in narrative, word-painting, evocation. And it is as a peerless storyteller that Stéphane Degout tackles this repertory which the German Romantics raised to unequalled heights. Who would have believed, before listening to this disc, that a French baritone could pay such eloquent tribute to the language of Goethe? © harmonia mundi
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Wolf, H.: Gedichte Von Eduard Morike (Excerpts)
Mitsuko Shirai
Vocal Music (Secular and Sacred) - Released January 1, 1998 | CapriccioNR
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Echo: Schubert, Loewe, Schumann & Wolf
Georg Nigl
Classical - Released May 5, 2023 | Alpha Classics
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4F de Télérama
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Reger & Mahler: Works
Christoph Spering
Classical - Released October 6, 2023 | CapriccioNR
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Mahler Songs
Joseph Middleton
Vocal Music (Secular and Sacred) - Released July 28, 2023 | Signum Records
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The art song might seem to present Mahler's style in miniature, but actually song pervaded his output. Some of the vocal movements in his symphonies use his songs directly, and beyond this, his interests in and treatments of German poetry set the tone for a major strand of his work, in general. Consider the grim Kindertotenlieder ("Songs on the Deaths of Children"), setting texts by Friedrich Rückert. Mezzo-soprano Sarah Connolly, recently recovered from cancer surgery when this recording was made in 2021, seems to find resonance in these, and her voice, always persuasive in Mahler, has a rather uncannily fragile quality in these quiet songs. In the bigger songs from the Rückert-Lieder and Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen sets, Connolly has to apply a lot of vibrato by this time; listeners' reaction to this will vary, but she is nowhere less than emotionally honest and engaged here. Sample Wenn dein Mütterlein from the Kindertotenlieder, truly heartbreaking in Connolly's hands. Joseph Middleton, always a top-notch accompanist, outdoes himself here, introducing hints of the hidden psychological currents that make these songs so absorbing. A fine entry in Connolly's late-career turn toward Mahler specialization, this made classical best-seller lists in the summer of 2023.© James Manheim /TiVo
The art song might seem to present Mahler's style in miniature, but actually song pervaded his output. Some of the vocal movements in his symphonies use his songs directly, and beyond this, his interests in and treatments of German poetry set the tone for a major strand of his work, in general. Consider the grim Kindertotenlieder ("Songs on the Deaths of Children"), setting texts by Friedrich Rückert. Mezzo-soprano Sarah Connolly, recently recovered from cancer surgery when this recording was made in 2021, seems to find resonance in these, and her voice, always persuasive in Mahler, has a rather uncannily fragile quality in these quiet songs. In the bigger songs from the Rückert-Lieder and Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen sets, Connolly has to apply a lot of vibrato by this time; listeners' reaction to this will vary, but she is nowhere less than emotionally honest and engaged here. Sample Wenn dein Mütterlein from the Kindertotenlieder, truly heartbreaking in Connolly's hands. Joseph Middleton, always a top-notch accompanist, outdoes himself here, introducing hints of the hidden psychological currents that make these songs so absorbing. A fine entry in Connolly's late-career turn toward Mahler specialization, this made classical best-seller lists in the summer of 2023.© James Manheim /TiVo
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Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde, 3 Rückert Lieder (1952)
Kathleen Ferrier
Classical - Released January 1, 1952 | Decca Music Group Ltd.
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Mahler: Songs of a Wayfarer; 5 Rückert-Lieder - Zemlinsky: Six Songs to Poems by Maurice Maeterlinck
Anne Sofie von Otter
Art Songs, Mélodies & Lieder - Released January 1, 1996 | Deutsche Grammophon (DG)
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Zemlinsky: Lieder
Barbara Bonney
Classical - Released January 1, 1989 | Deutsche Grammophon (DG)
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Mahler: Rückert Lieder; Kindertotenlieder; Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen; Des Knaben Wunderhorn
Brigitte Fassbaender
Art Songs, Mélodies & Lieder - Released January 3, 1994 | Decca Music Group Ltd.
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Bruch: Lieder
Rafael Fingerlos
Classical - Released August 13, 2021 | CPO
Booklet
The first piece composed by Max Bruch during his child prodigy years was a song, and the Five Songs, Op. 97 number among the last creations with which he closed the files on his long artist’s life shortly after World War I. This fact alone would suffice to make us understand the great value attached to song – whether of vocal or instrumental nature – in the oeuvre of this lifelong Romanticist. From the peppy male chorus to the full-length colossal oratorio, from the Loreley to the immortal cantilenas of his Violin Concerto No. 1, Scottish Fantasy, and Kol Nidrei, he sang out his songs to his heart’s content while revealing lyrical qualities that come to light in special measure in his collections of solo songs distributed over the entire course of his career – a fact underscored by the Austrian baritone and his piano partner Sascha El Mouissi on this new and so far absolutely unique anthology. Along with delightful tidbits from all of Bruch’s compositional periods, we are presenting the five Songs from Paul Heyse’s novella Siechentrost for One to Four Voice Parts, Violin, and Piano, Op. 54. Max Bruch’s musical setting produced not only an original piece of chamber music but also an intimate look at his self-understanding and his goals. Behind their creator’s blustery façade there was also a man of tender, vulnerable character! © CPO
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Nicholas Angelich: Hommage
Nicholas Angelich
Classical - Released September 1, 2023 | Warner Classics
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Pianist Nicholas Angelich, even more admired in Europe than in his native U.S., passed away tragically early in 2022 at the age of 51. One way to look at this Hommage is to note that it took quite a bit of research power, much of it apparently donated, to put together this massive seven-volume tribute, assembled from live performances and radio broadcasts between 1995 and 2019. That is a lot of Angelich, but fans here will find much that sheds new light on his genius. Consider the Brahms Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Haydn, Op. 24, which Angelich rarely played in concert. It receives a wonderfully controlled performance in which the tricky architecture of this work comes to the surface. Angelich was a fine virtuoso, and the Liszt Transcendental Etudes and the big Russian works generally have a layer of excitement added by the live performance. However, Angelich is equally effective in subtler pieces, thoughtful in the likes of Zemlinsky and the Bach Goldberg Variations, BWV 988, where the sequence of events feels somewhat different from in the pianist's 2011 studio recording even as the über-Romantic slow tempos are retained. His opening aria is even slower than on the studio version. The mastering of these immensely diverse sound sources from Erato is as good as such a thing can be, and physical album buyers get some fine reflections on the pianist's work. This is, in short, an effective tribute to a pianist whose life and work were brutally cut short.© James Manheim /TiVo
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J.S. Bach: Clavichord
András Schiff
Solo Piano - Released January 27, 2023 | ECM New Series
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It took András Schiff over 40 years to acquire his first clavichord, but the long wait was worth it. His love for the harpsichord's ‘little sister’ began in the late 1960s, when Schiff met the English pianist, organist, composer and conductor Georg Malcolm: ‘He showed me how to play Bach's polyphony with my fingers alone, without using the sustain pedal’.Unlike the harpsichord or piano, a note (string) played on the clavichord resonates for as long as the key is held down. As a result, playing this instrument is unique in that you can influence the sound even after a key has been struck, allowing for techniques such as vibrato.Historically, the clavichord was widely used as a practice instrument and a composition aid, and it was often only played in front of small groups. This doesn’t detract from its importance and significance, however, as evidenced by its frequent use by composers such as Bach.András Schiff takes to this intimate, personal instrument to offer recordings which— together with those of Friedrich Gulda or Gustav Leonhardt—constitute one of the rare complete recordings of Bach's keyboard music for clavichord. He performs the Inventions, Sinfonias, Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue BWV 903, among others, with dedication and precision, and he’s not afraid to put his own mark on the music. Schiff tends to be less known for his historical performances, but he astonishes here with an impressive recording in which he remains true to himself and to Bach. © Lena Germann/Qobuz
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Mahler: Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen; 4 Rückert-Lieder; Kindertotenlieder
Symphonieorchester Des Bayerischen Rundfunks
Classical - Released July 1, 1985 | Deutsche Grammophon (DG)
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Licht in der Nacht
Coline Dutilleul
Classical - Released October 21, 2022 | Fuga Libera
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"What could be more fascinating than the play of light and shadow? To descend into sensual melancholy, to dare to be fragile and to reveal oneself in its depths and inner nuances. I find that one way of illustrating this complexity of the senses is to compare two musical and pictorial schools: French Impressionism and German Expressionism. The colours and timbres employed by these two schools have long fascinated me just as much as the extreme refinement and detail of the paintings and compositions themselves. Each painter and composer explored the depths of the human soul in his or her own manner. This programme of works composed between 1899-1914 that laid the foundations for modern music is intended as a bridge between Expressionism and Impressionism. This parallel does not claim to illustrate their differences but rather to highlight their common points, to reveal the voluptuous and almost decadent sensuality of these two currents as well as their geographical and stylistic contrasts" (Coline Dutilleul) © Fuga Libera
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György Ligeti: Le Grand Macabre
György Ligeti
Opera - Released January 1, 1991 | Wergo
György Ligeti's only opera, Le Grand Macabre, was initially suggested by film and theater director Göran Gentele who was in 1965 director of the Stockholm Opera. Ligeti and librettist Michael Meschke adapted Belgian author Michel van Ghelderode's 1934 play La balade du grande macabre into the needed libretto and finished the opera in a mere six years. The Wergo CD of the work (there are two; the other is led by Esa-Pekka Salonen on Sony) is not of the first production of Le Grand Macabre but the second, held in the Grossen Konzerthaussaal in Vienna in 1987 under the direction of Elgar Howarth.Le Grand Macabre is a mega-bizarre opera that is part post-modern avant-garde and part Marx Brothers; a mad escapade that calls for sirens, auto horns, and singers who are able to behave like loons, and yet sing up into the stratosphere if necessary. This performance is live and once in awhile you can hear a titter of laughter from the audience. Le Grand Macabre IS funny -- thankfully there is a thick German-English libretto included with the set, so one need not fuss that any of the humor (or horror -- there's a considerable amount of that also) will be missed. A thinner booklet found inside the clamshell case contains the liner notes and track listings. This Grossen Konzerthaussaal performance is as good as can be hoped for in such a difficult work, but that does not mean the music itself is "difficult." Le Grand Macabre isn't tuneful -- it's written in a highly complex, late twentieth century idiom, but with action of the play to hang the music onto it is fairly easy to follow, and is nonetheless very entertaining.Le Grand Macabre isn't staged with much frequency, as it appears to be a rather expensive production. A video or DVD would be the best way, outside the concert hall, to experience it, but in the lack of such a product this rather pricey two-disc set will have to do. If the listener is interested in contemporary European opera after 1950 this should be the first place to go. Wergo's live recording is of excellent quality, but could stand to be a little louder than it is.© TiVo
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Arvo Pärt: Für Anna Maria, Complete Piano Music
Jeroen Van Veen
Classical - Released November 25, 2013 | Brilliant Classics
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Schubert: Die Freunde von Salamanka, D. 326; Der Spiegelritter, D. 11
Edith Mathis
Classical - Released February 23, 2024 | Archiv Produktion
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Gustav Mahler: Des Knaben Wunderhorn & Rückert-Lieder
Maureen Forrester
Mélodies - Released September 1, 2015 | Praga Digitals
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