Franz SCHUBERT (1797–1828)
Song Cycles
Die schöne Müllerin, D795 (1823) [61:39]
Schwanengesang, D957 (1828), and other Lieder [71:48]
Winterreise, D911 (1827/8) [70:43]
Christoph Prégardien (tenor)
Michael Gees (piano)
Andreas Staier
(fortepiano)
rec. 2007-12, Galaxy Studios, Mol, Belgium
Sung texts with English translations enclosed.
Reviewed as downloaded from press preview.
CHALLENGE CC72665
[3 CDs: 204:10]
Christoph Prégardien has stood out as one of the most reliable and natural
interpreters of German Lieder, and Schubert’s songs have obviously been
close to his heart. He has returned to them from time to time. The three
discs in this collection have previously been available separately, but
here they are now, conveniently gathered in a box. The earliest recording
is Die schöne Müllerin, which I reviewed very positively when it
was new. Returning to it after thirteen years I found that I had no reason
to change my verdict and reprint the full
review:
“Hard on the heels of Andreas Post and Tatjana Dravenau (see
review)
comes another tenor version of Schubert’s indestructible Die schöne Müllerin with Christoph Prégardien and Michael Gees.
While Post is quite early in his career, Prégardien has been active for
some two decades as a recording artist and his discography is extensive, to
say the least. He recorded Die schöne Müllerin in 1991 with
Andreas Staier (fortepiano), a reading that was awarded the Deutsche
Schallplattenpreis in 1993 (now Deutsche Harmonia Mundi 88985456992, 4 CDs)
and when he now returns to this work, he has radically changed his
approach.
I have sampled a few songs from the earlier issue and what we hear there is
a youthful, fluent lyric tenor, quite straight-forward and the
accompaniments are in accord. The mature Prégardien – he turned 50 in
2006 – has mellowed a little and there are some signs of strain in the
upper region of the voice but by and large he has preserved all the best
qualities of twenty years ago while, as far as I could judge from the
snippets I heard, he has deepened his insight.
Tempos are generally moderate, giving him ample opportunities to mould the
phrases expressively and his readings are considered and emanating from
intimate knowledge of the text. There is nothing sensational or showy about
his readings; they just seem natural, unaffected but committed. The ebb and
flow of the music is well catered for, and the dynamic range is – well,
natural and unaffected.
What makes this reading stand out and – to some listeners at least – may be
controversial is the question of embellishment. It is well documented, that
singers also in Schubert’s time tended to decorate the music with
grace-notes and even modification of notes. Sometimes, at least in the case
of Johann Michael Vogl, maybe the most important champion of Schubert’s
songs, this was due to the ageing singer’s fallible ability, but
performance practice was that there was a certain amount of freedom for the
singer to improvise, not actually rewrite what was written.
Prégardien decorates the song-line mostly discriminatingly and primarily in
strophic songs where he avoids monotony by varying the line slightly from
stanza to stanza. It is tastefully done and for listeners who know the
songs more or less by heart it gives added pleasure to wait for the next
deviation from the ‘original’. It is mainly a question of inserted
grace-notes and discreet decorations of phrases but sometimes he also
changes the melody considerably and even opts for final notes of a phrase
an octave lower than written. Jan Kobow, whose recording has been my
favourite version since I reviewed it a couple of years ago, also
decorates, but much less than Prégardien, who moreover makes quite heavy
ritardandi, mostly at the end of songs and rarely overindulgently, but I
can imagine listeners being irritated.
Michael Gees, who throughout the
cycle is a wonderfully responsive accompanist, also inserts some extra
notes once in a while, and sometimes plays a phrase out of his own
invention. It is all tastefully done, and I ended up with a sense of having
heard the cycle with new ears. All the songs were there, and they sounded
as I was used to hearing them, but just as with a newly restored old
painting where the removal of centuries of discoloured varnish makes the
picture that much more vivid, so Prégardien’s and Gees’s restoration work
reveals hitherto unseen tinges.
My admiration for Jan Kobow’s recording is undiminished, but Christoph
Prégardien now enters my shortlist of really important versions of Die schöne Müllerin. The SACD recording is first class and allows
the listener to appreciate every nuance of the reading. (The reissues are
on CD.) Walther Dürr’s liner notes are excellent.
A deeply satisfying reading of Die schöne Müllerin, made special
by the quite extensive decorations of the song-line.”
I may have been too concerned about the embellishments then. Today they
sound only natural and part of the interpretative freedom for the artist.
You’ll find the same approach in the Schwanengesang songs on CD 2,
and the decorations are just as tasteful there. What can be more
controversial is the amendment of the cycle.
To begin with, it isn’t a cycle at all. After Schubert’s death, his
publisher Tobias Haslinger simply issued “the final fruits of his noble
power” which he had obtained from Schubert’s brother Ferdinand, under the
collective title Schwanen-Gesang: seven songs set to poems by
Ludwig Rellstab, six to texts by Heinrich Heine, and a single song to a
text by Schubert’s friend Gabriel Seidl, Die Taubenpost. There is
no common theme or a continuous story that legitimates the soubriquet
“cycle” – only those “final fruits”. And since there were other “final
fruits” to texts by Rellstab and Seidl, Prégardien saw a possibility to
enlarge the Swan Song to be more comprehensive, by adding
Rellstab’s Herbst before the Schwanengesang proper, and
six Seidl texts after Die Taubenpost. These six were not quite
contemporaneous with the others, having been composed in 1826, but are
still fairly late.
This amended Schwanengesang works fine as a unit. Herbst
(Autumn) opens with gusting winds, heard in the prelude and throughout the
song, and nature is present in the next song, Liebesbotschaft,
where we hear instead the rushing of the brook. As always Prégardien is a
model for clear enunciation of the text, without being over-emphatic – and
he is so delicately nuanced. And so is Andreas Staier. The ominous Kriegers Ahnung is masterly in the sensitive modulations of the
voice. Frühlingssehnsucht and Ständchen, two songs that
are frequently sung separately, are superbly done, and listen to how he
tastefully inserts grace notes. I sat spellbound through the eight Rellstab
songs. And the Heine group is just as successful. Der Atlas, where
the titan complains: “The whole world of pain I must carry”; the
inward, almost hesitant Ihr Bild; the heart-rending Am Meer; the ghostlike Der Doppelgänger – they are all so
ideally interpreted. And after Die Taubenpost, where Schwanengesang ends, we are vouchsafed another half-dozen of Seidl
settings (see below). Der Wanderer an den Mond is well-known, but
all of them are lovely songs and they are interpreted with the same care
for dynamics as the rest of the programme.
Winterreise, on CD3, was recorded a few years later. Here Michael Gee is back at the
piano, and together they create a chamber-size cycle full of sensitive
nuances. The opening Gute Nacht sets the seal on the whole work
with delicate legato singing, worlds apart from the stamping foursquare
delivery of some well-known baritones. Prégardien employs his half-voice to
great effect, but there is deep feeling in the reading. Die Wetterfahne is eager and intense – but still within an
intimate frame. In fact, intensity is omnipresent throughout the
performance. Der Lindenbaum is restrained and beautiful from the
beginning; Die kalten Winde bliesen is forceful, but the
conclusion of the song is wonderfully soft. When we reach Frühlingstraum (tr. 11) the pain begins to creep in and becomes
our companion up to the last few songs, where a resigned calmness takes
over.
In the second part, Die Post is a temporary gleam of light, but Die Post bringt keinen Brief für dich, and the pain returns.Täuschung (tr. 19) brings another ray of hope, but ein helles, warmes Haus, und eine liebe Seele drin, was only an
illusion. In the last four songs, the wanderer has become reconciled with
his lot, and is already walking in the valleys of the shadows of death. Die Nebensonnen (tr. 23) is so touching in Prégardien’s reading,
as is Der Leiermann, where the old organ-grinder stands barefoot
on the ice … I was deeply moved by this Winterreise and among
tenors I can’t recall another singer who touched me so much – apart from
John Elwes (see
review), whose reading is quite different from Prégardien’s. The whole set is
a triumph for Christoph Prégardien’s refined interpretations, and I urge
readers to sample it. I wouldn’t be surprised if more than one were to place
their orders at once.
Göran Forsling
CD 2
[71:48]
Franz SCHUBERT (1797–1828)
Text: Ludwig RELLSTAB (1799–1860)
1. Herbst D 945 (1828) [3:19]
Schwanengesang, D 957 Nos. I – VII (1828)
2. Liebesbotschaft [2:42]
3. Kriegers Ahnung [4:45]
4. Frühlingssehnsucht [3:42]
5. Ständchen [3:20]
6. Aufenthalt [2:39]
7. In der Ferne [6:35]
8. Abschied [4:10]
Schwanengesang, D 957 Nos. VIII – XIII (1828)
Text: Heinrich HEINE (1797–1856)
9. Der Atlas [2:05]
10. Ihr Bild [2:45]
11. Das Fischermädchen [1:56]
12. Die Stadt [2:18]
13. Am Meer [3:59]
14. Der Doppelgänger [4:05]
Songs after Seidl:
Text: Johann Gabriel SEIDL (1804–1875)
15. Die Taubenpost D 965 A (1828) [3:22]
16. Sehnsucht D 879 (1826) [2:21]
17. Am Fenster D 878 (1826) [3:45]
18. Bei dir allein D 866 (1826) [1:55]
19. Der Wanderer an den Mond D 870 (1826) [2:17]
20. Das Zügenglöcklein D 871 (1826) [4:13]
21. Im Freien D880 (1826) [4:54]
