Comparison: Christoph Prégardien,
Andreas Staier (DHM, 1991)
"The instrument used
for this recording enables us to hear
Schubert's song cycle as music lovers
of the period could have heard it".
These are the words of Andrew Lancaster,
who restored the square piano used in
this recording. But this statement is
both confusing and incorrect. "Music
lovers of the time" refers to the time
of Schubert, one has to assume. But
the piano was built after Schubert's
death. And in Schubert's time song cycles
were never sung in their entirety. 'Die
schöne Müllerin' was sung
as such for the first time by Julius
Stockhausen in Vienna in 1856.
And who could have
heard it? Not the music lovers of Vienna:
it is rather unlikely that instruments
by Clementi were used on a regular basis
there. But the music lovers in Britain
in Schubert's time couldn't have heard
it either. Schubert was almost completely
neglected in Britain during his life.
It was in 1831 when the singer Wilhelmine
Schröder-Devrient sang his 'Erlkönig'
in London. It was published by the London
publisher Wessel & Co which had
printed 38 songs by Schubert by 1839.
But the interest in any music by Schubert
came only in the second half of the
19th century, and then mainly in his
orchestral and chamber music.
It seems therefore
that the historical justification for
using this instrument for this recording
is non-existent. We should therefore
take it for what it is: just an interpretation
of one of Schubert's most famous song
cycles. It has therefore to compete
with other recordings. There are a lot
of them, and I have used one of the
best with fortepiano as comparison.
Right at the start
I have to say that there is no real
competition here. In all respects Christoph
Prégardien and Andreas Staier
are ahead of Richard Edgar-Wilson and
Joanna Leach. It helps that Christoph
Prégardien is a native German
speaker, which makes his pronunciation
completely natural. Nevertheless, Edgar-Wilson
does pretty well in this department.
Even though one can hear that he isn't
German, there are only few instances
where his pronunciation is really off
the mark (for instance "ewig" in 'Ungeduld').
One problem here is
a lack of variety in the interpretation
of the songs. The tempi are uniformly
slowish, and that slowness is often
unnatural, for example in the very first
song, 'Das Wandern'. There is also a
lack in contrast within songs, for example
between the first and second stanza
of 'Am Feierabend' or the first six
stanzas and the last in 'Tränenregen'.
'Ungeduld' doesn't sound very joyful
and the jubilant character of 'Mein'
hardly comes across.
Another problem is
the fortepiano. An instrument with English
action is not the ideal medium for Schubert's
music. The tone of such an instrument
does sustain longer than an instrument
with Viennese action, like the one Andreas
Staier uses. This has considerable effect
in those passages where the piano part
contains repeating chords, symbolising
death bells ('Die böse Farbe')
or representing a funeral march ('Trockne
Blumen'). The descant of the square
piano lacks clarity, which has a negative
effect in particular in the last line
of the stanzas of 'Mit dem grünen
Lautenbande'.
In Schubert’s songs
the piano part plays an important role
in commenting on the text. In this recording
its execution is too pale really to
contribute to the interpretation of
the songs’ content.
On the whole Richard
Edgar-Wilson rightly uses a minimum
of vibrato. But in forte passages he
starts to wobble and his voice sounds
stressed. His articulation is admirable,
but in really fast passages, like 'Der
Jäger', where there is no breathing
space at all, he has to pay so much
attention to keeping the words audible
that there is no room for any differentiation
between them.
This recording is made
in a very intimate atmosphere which
has its charms. But if one wants to
have a really good interpretation of
Schubert’s ‘Die schöne Müllerin’
other recordings are preferable, in
particular the one by Prégardien
and Staier.
Johan van Veen
Athene
catalogue
Richard Edgar-Wilson, tenor; Joanna Leach, square
piano (Clementi, 1832) 