Franz SCHUBERT (1797-1828)
Wanderers Nachtlied
Matthias Goerne Schubert Lieder Edition: Volume 8
Full track-list at end of review
Matthias Goerne (baritone)
Helmut Deutsch (piano - CD 1); Eric Schneider (piano - CD 2)
rec, February and April 2011 (CD 1), June 2011 and February 2012 (CD 2), Teldex Studio Berlin
HARMONIA MUNDI HMC 902109.10 [68:38 + 61:58]
There is a predominantly dark feeling to the latest release in Matthias
Goerne’s Schubert cycle, as befits the “Night Song”
of the title. The songs tend to deal with mortality and farewells, but
the artists that come together to assay them give us portrayals that are
never morose but instead are thoughtful, insightful and deeply sensitive.
Listening to the two discs together is not an altogether cheerful experience
but a very profound one which left me very moved.
The opening song showcases the sensational legato that Goerne can bring
to a vocal line, seeming to mirror in sound the very process of the setting
sun about which he is singing. The sound manages to combine the episodic
nature of the verses with the static contemplation of nature, and is a
good showcase of variety to get the set going. Death and the Maiden
is very beautiful. Deutsch’s opening piano line, so familiar from
the String Quartet, is beautifully still, poignant in its solemnity, and
Goerne brilliantly captures both the panic of the young girl’s voice
and the dark, unarguable but reassuring figure of Death, who offers release
from the world’s cares. Die Rose charts the brief flowering
of a rose on a sunny day, who knows that she must die because of the conditions
in which she flowers, and Erinnerung develops into a beautiful
last stanza which looks to peace in a new world. The Litany for All
Soul’s Day rests in a peaceful legato that never breaks out
of its slow opening time signature, and Goerne’s voice, similarly,
stays in a gentle pianissimo throughout, almost as an affected
tribute to the souls of whom he is singing. All the while, Deutsch’s
accompaniment gently undulates beneath the vocal line, serving as a bed
of blissful sound on which to support the singer, and the effect is serenely
hypnotic.
If Auf dem Wasser zu singen initially sounds like lighter relief
then the effect is deceptive. The barcarolle-type accompaniment shelters
words that sing of evening dancing around the boat of the soul and the
hope of escaping the vagaries of time on lofty wings. Abendbilder
moves at a gentle but insistent pace, each stanza seeming to bring a new
revelation in the mind of the singer, until the final verse seeks rest
and looks forward to the day of resurrection, and it is at this point
that Goerne’s voice really flowers, finding a new well of feeling
that had previously been absent; it’s a very moving effect. Nach
einem Gewitter is a gentle piece of nature painting that serves as
an interlude before the gothic horror of Der Zwerg. Its jittery
piano accompaniment keeps the listener’s nerves jangling throughout,
and Goerne manages miraculously to personify the queen, the dwarf and
the observer with equal skill, sometimes pleading, sometimes breathless
in his identification with the characters. After this, Im Frühling
sounds like a gentle meditation, though the desperate melancholy of the
subject matter is never far away.
I must admit I was left rather unmoved by Viola, the most substantial
song on the set, for all that it is well sung and played, Goerne charting
the tale of the violet’s early appearance in Spring and her subsequent
pining away for loneliness. He injects a poignant sense of urgency to
the artist’s search for his lost beloved in An die Entfernte
and then finds a new feeling of optimism for the two songs that end the
disc, both the hopefulness of Bei dir allein and the pantheistic
hymn of Ganymed.
Eric Schneider takes over the pianistic honour for the second disc, which
begins with the titular Wanderers Nachtlied, and the hymn-like
chords that both announce and accompany it ground us firmly in Schubert
and Goethe’s contemplation of mortality through nature. The Shepherd’s
Lament is almost stunning in its bleakness, but there is then a charming
naïveté to Heidenröslein and magnificent ambiguity
to Rastlose Liebe, which cannot decide whether it is excited,
optimistic or forlorn. An den Mond manages to combine stillness
with quiet yearning, and in the dialogue song Trost in Tränen
Goerne inhabits both personae convincingly, if without as much distinction
as in, say, Der Zwerg. In marked contrast to Erster Verlust,
Der Musensohn bounds across the stave with confidence, and introduces
a more optimistic trio of songs that comes as a welcome sunny interlude,
though the mood becomes serious again with An Schwager Kronos
and its theme of Time as the coachman driving us towards the final inn
of death. Geisternähe is a beautiful contemplation of the
nearness of spirits, and Schneider’s gentle, undulating accompaniment
is especially transfixing here. Das war ich introduces a section
of gentler, more whimsical songs, until Die Liebe hat gelogen
darkens the mood again, even if it is tempered with a spiritual sense
of acceptance, and Dass sie hier gewesen is even more intense.
The remarkable thing about Goerne’s singing in this sequence is
the sense of gentleness, almost breathlessness with which he approaches
each song, almost treating each as an individual act of mourning and drawing
the listener as deeply into the sound world as it is possible to get.
Even in the final two tracks there is a cloud: the folksy, winsome piano
line of Der Einsame underpins a vocal line that sounds strangely
weary, as if the artist is trying too hard to convince himself of the
truth of his words, and the thoughtful rapture of Die Sterne
is underpinned by a longing to flee from this world.
I struggled to believe that the discs were recorded in Berlin’s
Teldex Studio: the echo and reverberation that the engineers have left
around the song is much more reminiscent of a church or an empty concert
hall. This is effective enough in its own way, though, and at times it
seems almost to emphasise the isolation of the artist, singing into a
void where there are no people to hear him, but just rebounding nature.
This is every bit as good as the
previous volume in this series, and surely only helps to confirm that
Goerne is one of the leading Schubert baritones of our (or perhaps any)
age, with singing full of sensitivity to the vocal line, coupled with
gentle care for the words. Why hesitate?
Simon Thompson
Previous review: Brian
Wilson
Full track-list
CD 1
An die untergehende Sonne, D457 [6:38]
Der Tod und das Mädchen, D531 [2:24]
Die Rose, D745 [3:11]
Erinnerung (Totenopfer), D101 [2:17]
Litanei, D343 [7:54]
Auf dem Wasser zu singen, D774 [3:52]
Abendbilder, D650 [5:20]
Nach einem Gewitter, D561 [2:10]
Der Zwerg, D771 [5:29]
Im Frühling, D882 [4:17]
Die Blumensprache, D519 [2:05]
Viola, D786 [13:34]
An die Entfernte, D765 [2:52]
Bei dir allein, D866/2 [2:04]
Ganymed, D544 [4:21]
CD 2
Wanderers Nachtlied, D768 [2:27]
Schäfers Klagelied, D121 [3:56]
Heidenröslein, D257 [1:56]
Rastlose Liebe, D138 [1:19]
An den Mond, D259 [5:58]
Trost in Tränen, D120 [4:10]
Erster Verlust, D226 [2:12]
Der Musensohn, D764 [2:01]
Geheimes, D719 [1:44]
Versunken, D715 [2:02]
An Schwager Kronos, D369 [2:54]
Geisternähe, D100 [4:28]
Das war ich, D174 [2:49]
Das Rosenband, D280 [1:41]
Furcht der Geliebten, D285 [2:01]
An Sie, D288 [2:42]
Die Liebe hat gelogen, D751 [2:33]
Lachen und Weinen, D777 [1:46]
Dass sie hier gewesen, D775 [3:52]
Der Einsame, D800 [4:10]
Die Sterne, D684 [5:14]
Support
us financially by purchasing this from |
|
 |
 |
 |
 |