Schubert: Hyperion Song Edition 1 - Goethe and Schiller Settings

Graham Johnson, Janet Baker

Released on 1987-12-25 by Hyperion
Main artists: (Dame) Janet Baker Graham Johnson
Genre: Classical

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Graham Johnson's Schubert edition was grandly, even grandiosely, ambitious: to record every song Schubert ever composed with the best singers available. If it were going to succeed, it needed to start at the top with a volume of some of his most cherished songs sung by one of his best-loved interpreters. Johnson started at the top: for Vol. 1, he engaged Janet Baker to sing a collection of Schubert's settings of Schiller and Goethe. When this volume was released in 1987, Baker was just a bit past her peak as a singer and there is a slight sense of strain for some of her high notes and she occasionally shifts in register. But even Baker a bit past her peak is still just about as good as it gets. Baker's rich, full tone, her impeccable diction, her almost effortless technique, her dazzling breath control, and most of all her profound understanding of Schubert's songs all make her performance on this disc as a great as the best ever recorded. In the well-known songs like Der Jüngling am Bach (D. 30), An den Mond (D. 296), or An den Frühling (D. 587), Baker's performances make the familiar songs sound new. In the less well-known songs, like Thekla (D. 73), Nähe des Geliebten (D. 162), or Wanderers Nachtlied (I) (D. 224), Baker's performances make the unfamiliar sound familiar. And in the very greatest songs on the disc, such as Meeres Stille (D. 216), Baker's performance ranks with the most deep and moving ever recorded. Johnson's accompaniments are models of sympathetic understanding and his program notes are models of scholarship and enthusiasm. This is a wonderful start to one of the greatest recording projects of all time.

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Schubert: Hyperion Song Edition 1 - Goethe and Schiller Settings

(Dame) Janet Baker

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Der Jüngling am Bache, D. 30

00:03:50

Franz Schubert, Composer - Martin Compton, Producer, Recording Producer - Graham Johnson, Piano, MainArtist, AssociatedPerformer - Friedrich Schiller, Author - Janet Baker, Mezzo-Soprano, MainArtist, AssociatedPerformer - Antony Howell, Recording Engineer, StudioPersonnel