Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (baritone)
Lied Edition - Volume 3
Rec. 1980-2000
ORFEO C994205 [5 CDs: 305:49]
This bargain priced box marks Orfeo's third and final bundle of vocal recitals of their prize asset, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. There was no major anniversary for the great baritone (his centenary comes in five years) and, given the esoteric repertoire he explored on the small Munich based label, the result is a bazaar of mainly obscure Franco-German song writing. It is best not to see it as a boxset and instead treat it as five very different albums which happen to have ended up together.
The Ravel album is frustrating. Although 1983 is late for him, Fischer-Dieskau is in good voice but he had a tendency to approach French melodies as universally dreamy and mellow. This allows for some wonderful singing in poetic numbers like Là-bas, vers l'église but he could be sharper and, well, funnier in Ravel's more acerbic works. The five Histoires Naturelles are prettily sung but the charming humour occasionally eludes the singer, such as the hilarious Le Paen (The Peacock). It is sung prettily but doesn't capture the gormlessness and strutting of the bird in his wedding finery. The opening Un grand sommeil noir pushes Fischer-Dieskau into his rather forced bass register but he makes much of Verlaine's trippy meditation on death and depression, creating the right air of mystery.
He recorded the Five Greek songs back in 1960 for Deutsche Grammophon with Karl Engel and there is little to be gained from these 1983 remakes. The tempi are a little swifter, the diction a little more relaxed but the comparison shows how parched the voice had become. Better is his remake of the Don Quichotte songs which benefit from his clearer French and autumnal voice. Apart from missing the odd sardonic tone, this rare foray in French song is a pleasure and is mostly his only version of the songs. Excellent, too, is Harmut Höll's accompaniment which relishes the chromaticism and deep pools of harmonic exoticism throughout Ravel's writing.
From such poetic dreaminess and half-murmured Verlaine and Renard texts we lurch into the very different 20th century world of composer and teacher, Paul Hindemith, an elusive figure throughout the Nazi era although much of his output was condemned by the regime. Fischer-Dieskau almost single-handedly promoted the cause of this composer, recording his operas Cardillac and Mathis der Maler for major labels and digging up his near-forgotten song writing. Recorded in 1984, Fischer-Dieskau again is in dry but decent voice for a collection of songs almost exclusively from the 1930s and 1940s. The settings here range from Friedrich Hölderlin and Rückert to English poetry by Percy Bysshe Shelley, William Blake and Irish poet Charles Wolfe whose The Last Rose of Summer shows Hindemith brilliantly sneaking in fragments of the famous folksong into his dense, modernist harmony. Fischer-Dieskau's English is excellent and Hindemith sets them well. Fascinating are the two settings of Walt Whitman's Lincoln tribute, Sing on there in the Swamp. The stripped-down austerity and dissonance of the German language 1919 version (the earliest work here) is a world away from the gentle lullaby-like simplicity for the 1943 English work. Generally, his German settings are spikier and more austere than his rather melodic English songs. Grittiness mars Fischer-Dieskau's singing at times but he digs deep, such as in the final song of death, An die Parzen (To the Fates). Aribert Reimann, composer and regular late-period accompanist to Fischer-Dieskau, gives excellent, clear toned support.
Disc Three then takes us to the forgotten name of Wolfgang Fortner, a Leibzig-born modernist who, like Hindemith, remained in Germany despite falling foul of the authorities. Again Fischer-Dieskau had done much to document this composer even though the singer barely features here, appearing only at the end in Hugo von Hoffmannsthal's Terzinen. Written in 1963, they mark the start of Fortner's more austere, atonal direction. Recorded in 1986, Fischer-Dieskau wisely doesn't push his fading resources and manages to put text first and foremost in these edgy songs but he and Reimann did them better (admittedly without the two interludes) on a live recital from 1971. Otherwise, a lot of the material here is very melodic and playful in feel, especially the opening collection of Shakespeare settings. The younger baritone, Ralf Lukas takes the honours here, singing in good English but you miss the sophistication and vocal colouring of the elder star. There is a real cabaret feeling to The fool's Song from King Lear and a pleasing, melodic unfussiness to texts from Measure for Measure and Cymbeline. Tenor Christopher Lincoln then sings four Shakespeare sonnets, relishing the simplicity and clarity of Fortner's cool, spare settings. Fischer-Dieskau's pupil, Stella Doufexis, who died so young, is better still in the harmonically more abstract world of Fortner's Pablo Neruda cycle, Farewell written in 1981. Again, it is hard to pin down Fortner's style with the wistful lyrical vocal lines offset by the percussive but sympathetic accompaniment but they sit approximately in the sound world of the early Second Viennese School. It is all very well played by Alex Bauni and Aribert Reimann in the Terzinen.
In a similar academic vein to the previous two composers, Hermann Reutter's reputation remains murky; he was an early member of the Nazi party but later got into trouble with some of his works. Denazification clearly deemed him safe to work as accompanist with the likes of Fischer-Dieskau and Hermann Prey and his legacy as a teacher is impressive. His style is simpler and more lyrical than many of his peers, neo-Romantic and stubbornly tonal, more in the previous era of Alexander von Zemlinsky or Erich Wolff. Again, Fischer-Dieskau is notable by his absence, as half the album is sung by Doris Soffel from sessions in 2000: plushly sung accounts of Hölderlin's Die Jahreszeiten (The Seasons) and late-period settings of poems by Nelly Sachs and Marie Luise Kaschnitz. We then jump back to 1980 for the remaining fourteen tracks where Fischer-Dieskau is in good shape for Fortner's Hölderlin settings from 1943 and 1966, including An die Parzen written only a few years after Hindemith's version on the second disc. They are lushly harmonised, wistfully beautiful works, even those written in the 1960s. A group of James Joyce settings, oddly entitled Chamber Music, showcases Fortner's sparer, late period style.
Occasional gruffness aside, the performances are generally excellent and the playing of Höll and Reimann underpins this diverse 20th century repertoire. We finally end up with Aribert Reimann as composer. If his large-scale works are too abstract and brittle, then I suggest the final disc of his songs are a good way into his sparse, atonal style. Unrevealed sets various letters that Lord Byron wrote to his half-sister, Augusta Leigh, with whom he very likely fathered a child. Reimann's jagged, sliding accompaniment for string quartet underpins some very sympathetic vocal writing. Vividly played by the Cherubini Quartet which, at the time, featured Fischer-Dieskau's cellist son, Manuel, these are bracing, well-constructed works of atonal angles and disjointed harmony. Shine and Dark brings the baritone back with Reimann as pianist for James Joyce's early poetry, full of lusty and vivid imagery of women dancing and untamed youth. Reimann's bleak settings still show a skill at writing for singers but, sadly, this recording made in the late 1980s shows Fischer-Dieskau hoarser and more breathless. His colouring of text is still vivid but one starts to doubt what is vocal limitation or dramatic illumination. His English is yet again very good and he sings within his limits in Unrevealed but I wish this had been caught earlier.
What an odd collection this makes. I can only assume this bundling of Fischer-Dieskau's recitals is just part of the label's 40th anniversary celebrations. Orfeo has always been a bit of a basket case about its output. I cannot speculate on their financial model or state but they set themselves up as an artist led label, enabling projects that the majors were less likely to touch, especially with musicians entering the autumn of their careers like Fischer-Dieskau. We must be grateful for such a diverse catalogue, even if that means this boxset is an odd mix. This is a niche assortment but it costs a fifth of the price of what Orfeo had charged separately (and virtually never at discount!) so for all its randomness this is a welcome issue. With so few new releases from them and a change of heart about budget repackaging I do hope Orfeo holds it together for another forty years. Sound quality is consistently excellent and well balanced throughout. For such a well-priced reissue, presentation is also pretty good. The original liner notes, essential for such obscure repertoire, are included and I was pleasantly surprised to see texts included, even if they don't run to translations. Oddly they didn't get permission to print Reutter's Joyce texts. As it stands this has some appeal beyond us DFD fanboys (and girls) and, despite its faults and arbitrary bundle of composers, it is worth a punt.
Barnaby Rayfield
Details
CD1: Maurice RAVEL (1875-1937)
Hartmut Höll (piano)
Rec. 1983
Un grand sommeil noir, M. 6 (3:32)
Epigrammes de Clément Marot (4:01)
No. 1, D'Anne qui me jecta de la neige, M. 21 (2:15)
No. 2, D'Anne jouent de l'espinette, M. 10 (1:46)
Histoires naturelles (5) (17:20)
No. 1, Le paon (4:38)
No. 2, Le grillon (3:13)
No. 3, Le cygne (3:27)
No. 4, Le martin-pêcheur (2:53)
No. 5, Le pintade (3:09)
Cinq mélodies populaires grecques (7:13)
No. 1, Le réveil de la mariée, M.A 9 (1:26)
No. 2, Là-bas, vers l'église, M.A 10 (1:22)
No. 3, Quel galant m'est comparable, M.A 4 (0:51)
No. 4, Chanson des cueilleuses de lentisques, M.A 5 (2:45)
No. 5, Tout gai!, M.A 11 (0:49)
Chants Populaires (9:46)
No. 1, Chanson espagnole (1:59)
No. 2, Chanson française (2:10)
No. 3, Mélodie italienne (1:14)
No. 4, Chanson hébraïque (4:23)
Ronsard à son âme, M. 75 (1:56)
Rêves, M. 79 (1:07)
Don Quichotte à Dulcinée, M. 84 (Version for Baritone & Piano) (6:26)
No. 1, Chanson romanesque (2:01)
No. 2, Chanson épique (2:49)
No. 3, Chanson à boire (1:36)
CD2: Paul HINDEMITH (1895-1963)
Aribert Reimann (piano)
Rec. 1984
No. 2, Sonnenuntergang (1:14)
9 English Songs (Excerpts) (9:35)
No. 6, The Wild Flower's Song (1:38)
No. 3, The Moon (2:39)
No. 7, Sing on There in the Swamp (1:57)
No. 1, On Hearing the Last Rose of Summer (3:21)
No. 3, Ehmals und jetz (1:20)
Lieder nach Texten von Brentano
Brautgesang (3:20)
Singet leise (1:28)
No. 3, Das Ganze, nicht das Einzelne (1:27)
No. 4, Des Morgens (2:18)
No. 5, Fragment (2:37)
No. 2, Der Tod ist'n eigener Mann (2:30)
No. 4, Ich will nicht klagen mehr (1:37)
No. 1, Hymne (1:55)
No. 6, Abendphantasie (3:49)
No. 2, O, nun heb du an, dort in deinem Moor (3:47)
No. 5, Vor dir schein' ich aufgewacht (1:55)
No. 2, Die Sonne sinkt (3:07)
No. 1, An die Parzen (2:36)
CD3: Wolfgang FORTNER (1907-1987)
Stella Doufexis (mezzo-soprano), Christopher Lincoln (tenor), Ralf Lukas (baritone)
Axel Bauni (piano), Aribert Reimann (piano)
Rec. 1986/7
Shakespeare-Songs (25:32)
No. 1, Motto (1:40)
No. 2, O Mistress Mine (1:30)
No. 3, When Daisies Pied (1:38)
No. 4, When Icicles Hang (1:21)
No. 5, Willow, Willow (3:41)
No. 6, Blow, Thou Winter Wind (1:24)
No. 7, Take, O Take Those Lips Away (0:56)
No. 8, Death, Come Away (2:28)
No. 9, Fear No More (4:33)
No. 10, Fool's Song (0:45)
No. 11, The Gravedigger (2:08)
No. 12, Epilogue (3:28)
Ralf Lukas (baritone), Aribert Reimann (piano)
Widmungen (from Shakespeare's Sonnets)
Sonnet No. 20, A Woman's Face (1:56)
Sonnet No. 91, Some Glory in Their Birth (1:25)
Sonnet No. 22, My Glass Shall Not Persuade Me (3:02)
Sonnet No. 18, Shall I Compare Thee (1:42)
Christopher Lincoln (tenor), Aribert Reimann (piano)
Farewell (Arr. for Soprano & Piano)
No. 1, Desde el fondo de ti (2:33)
No. 2, Yo no lo quiero, Amada (0:53)
No. 3, Amo el amor de los marineros (1:04)
No. 4, Amo el amor que se reparte (0:56)
No. 5, Ya no se encantaran mis ojos en tus ojos (3:43)
Stella Doufexis (mezzo), Aribert Reimann (piano)
4 Gesänge
No. 1, An die Parzen (3:02)
No. 2, Hyperions Schicksalslied (2:46)
No. 3, Abbitte (2:18)
No. 4, Geh unter, schöne Sonne (2:40)
Ralf Lukas (baritone), Aribert Reimann (piano)
Lieder aus dem Nachlass (Excerpts)
No. 8, Neujahrsgruß (Arr. for Soprano & Piano) (0:54)
Stella Doufexis (mezzo)
No. 1, Reiselied (2:14)
Ralf Lukas (baritone)
No. 7, Eine kleine Bitte (Arr. for Tenor & Piano) (1:21)
No. 2, Andenken (Arr. for Tenor & Piano) (1:16)
No. 9, Wünschelrute (Arr. for Tenor & Piano) (1:11)
Christopher Lincoln (tenor)
Terzinen
No. 1, Noch spür ich ihren Atem auf den Wangen (3:47)
Zwischenspiel I (1:26)
No. 2, Die Stunden! Wo wir auf das helle Blauen (2:17)
No. 3, Wir sind aus solchem Zeug wie das zu träumen (2:39)
Zwischenspiel II (1:01)
No. 4, Zuweilen kommen niegeliebte Frauen (2:46)
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Aribert Reimann
CD4: Hermann REUTTER (1900-1985)
Rec. 1980-2000
Doris Soffel (mezzo-soprano)
Axel Bauni (piano), Aribert Reimann (piano)
Die Jahreszeiten (9:49)
Doris Soffel, Aribert Reimann
No. 1, Der Frühling (2:02)
No. 2, Der Sommer (1:37)
No. 3, Der Herbst (3:53)
No. 4, Der Winter (2:17)
4 Lieder nach Gedichten von Nelly Sachs (5:18)
Doris Soffel, Aribert Reimann
No. 1, So steigt der Berg (1:26)
No. 2, Erde, Planetengreis (0:57)
No. 3, Schmetterling (1:46)
No. 4, Chassidim Tanzen (1:09)
5 Lieder nach Gedichten von Marie Luise Kaschnitz (10:47)
Doris Soffel, Aribert Reimann
No. 1, Dein Schweigen - meine Stimme (4:30)
No. 2, Der Mond (1:52)
No. 3, Ostia antica (2:18)
No. 4, Torre San Lorenzo (0:48)
No. 5, Eros (1:19)
3 Gesänge, Op. 56 (14:50)
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Aribert Reimann
No. 1, An die Parzen (4:29)
No. 2, Halfte des Lebens (2:47)
No. 3, Abendphantasie (7:34)
3 Monologe des Empedokles (Version for Voice & Piano) (9:46)
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Aribert Reimann
No. 1, In meine Stille kamst du leise wandelnd (4:25)
No. 2, Euch ruf ich über das Gefild herein (3:27)
No. 3, Ha! Jupiter, Befreier! (1:54)
5 Lieder, Op. 58 (17:30)
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Aribert Reimann
No. 1, Die Stadt (3:42)
No. 2, Hyazinthen (3:18)
No. 3, Verirrt (3:00)
No. 4, O bleibe treu den Toten (4:40)
No. 5, Wohl fuhl ich, wie das Leben rinnt (2:50)
Chamber Music (6:30)
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Aribert Reimann
No. 1, Strings in the Earth and Air (1:17)
No. 2, Lean Out of the Window (1:12)
No. 3, My Dove, My Beautiful One (1:17)
No. 4, Sleep Now, O Sleep Now (2:44)
CD5 Aribert REIMANN (b.1936)
Cherubini Quartett, Aribert Reimann (piano)
Rec. 1988/89
Unrevealed (37:47)
No. 1, Stanzas to Augusta (7:23)
No. 2, Stanzas to Augusta (12:03)
No. 3, Letter to Augusta (5:10)
No. 4, Epistel to Augusta (13:11)
Shine and Dark (19:56)
I. And I Have Sat - Yea, for This Love of Mine - Of Thy Dark Life - Requiem eternam dona ei, Domine (11:32)
II. I Intone the High Anthem - Wind Thine Armes Round Me - Let Us Fling to the Winds (8:24)
