Johannes BRAHMS (1833-1897)
Secular Vocal Quartets with Piano, Volume 2
Neue Liebeslieder-Walzer Op. 65 [18:38]
Five Songs for Mixed Choir Op. 104 [13:27]
Three Songs for Six-part Mixed Choir Op. 42 [10:32]
Liebeslieder-Walzer Op. 52 [23:04]
Haruhi Sato & Markus Bellheim (piano), Norddeutscher Figuralchor, dir. Jorg Straube
Rec. 28-29 March 2014 (Liebeslieder-Walzer) & 9-10 May 2015 (Op.42 & Op.104), Konzerthaus der Abtei, Marienmünster, Germany. (Reviewed in surround sound).
MDG 9471920-6 SACD [65:41]
Brahms’ first set of Liebeslieder-Walzer Op. 52 are from 1869 and written for vocal quartet (or SATB choir as here) and piano duet; these “love song waltzes” were so successful that a second set followed in 1874, the Neue Liebeslieder
Op. 65. Brahms orchestrated many of the waltzes as well as producing piano versions. Of this second set of fifteen waltzes, seven songs are for individual soloists. The first fourteen Neue Liebeslieder are as before in Op. 52 settings of texts of love poems from around the world collected in Georg Daumer’s Polydora, though the final waltz uses a Goethe text. It is remarkable how much variety Brahms can get within the constraints of 3/4 time, and one source is tempo, from laments to galops.
On this recording the Norddeutscher Figuralchor, led by the conductor Jörg Straube, includes both the Liebeslieder-Walzer collections and sings them with a charm and sweetness that recognises that this is the closest we get to “light Brahms”, especially in the first set of Op. 52. The choir, described in the booklet as “one of Germany’s leading semi-professional chamber choirs”, is sure in intonation and, where appropriate, unbuttoned in manner while keeping their discipline. They also manage to sound as if they are enjoying themselves, whether the tempo suggests an elegant ballroom or a bibulous peasant gathering. Straube finds persuasive tempi throughout, and achieves good balance between sections. In the second set, the Neue Liebeslieder, the calibre of the three soloists is very impressive, especially soprano Ania Vegry who sings in six of the songs. Above all, the musical manner is that of the large Viennese bourgeois drawing room where skilled sight-reading amateurs are singing for themselves and friends. That is easier to achieve with the vocal quartet versions than the choral upgrade perhaps, but they manage nonetheless.
The Three Songs for Six-part Mixed Choir Op. 42 appeared in print in 1868 but were composed around 1860. The six parts divide the lower male and female voice types giving an SAATBB choir, the first time, but far from the last, that Brahms wrote for that arrangement. It brings richness and complexity, not least in the first of these three songs which deploys the sections in shifting combinations and has everyone singing almost throughout. The Norddeutscher Figuralchor have ideal expertise for this, with their dead-centre tuning and careful balancing, so that one hears why this is regarded as one of his great lyric choral pieces. The second song is a favourite with choirs also; the third and longest is a funeral song from that once very popular bogus poet Ossian and Straube ensures the funereal rhythms do not drag.
The Five Songs for Mixed Chorus Op. 104 (1890) is the last of the composer’s secular choral works. The adjective most often encountered to describe much late Brahms is “autumnal”. Here two of the songs evoke that season and mood directly. The third song sets Kalbeck’s poem Letztes Glück (“Last Happiness”) in which the leaves are falling, but the unhappy heart never forgets its last happiness. This is described (by Virginia Harrison, in The Compleat Brahms, Ed. Botstein, 1999) as “one of Brahms’s most beautiful and difficult songs”. Here the difficulties are overcome so that we hear only the beauty. The final song, though the first to be written, is Im Herbst
(“In Autumn”) to a text from Klaus Groth. It is one of Brahms’s more sombre creations, treating the approach of a death that might not be entirely unwelcome. Its tricky chromatic writing
and the beautifully wrought performance brings great power to this
sentiment.
The Norddeutscher Figuralchor, founded by Jorg Straube in 1981, shows an impressive range on this disc, offering equal mastery of
both the demanding songs and of the straightforward ones - Jorg Straube is clearly a very able choir trainer and director indeed. Their work is captured with great clarity and atmosphere by MDG’s excellent SACD production, which also balances the choir well with the fine piano duettists in the Liebeslieder-Walzer. The booklet has
the German song texts (but no translations) and helpful notes in English, French and German. I note too that the first volume of this pair of MDG SACDs of Brahms’ secular choral works from Jorg Straube and the Norddeutscher Figuralchor is still available. I have not heard that, but suspect it is as recommendable as this companion issue.
Roy Westbrook
