Wydawnictwo: Avi Music
Nr katalogowy: AVI 8553402
Nośnik: 1 CD
Data wydania: wrzesień 2018
EAN: 4260085534029
Nr katalogowy: AVI 8553402
Nośnik: 1 CD
Data wydania: wrzesień 2018
EAN: 4260085534029
Schubert / Brahms / Barber: Swan Songs
Avi Music - AVI 8553402
Wykonawcy
Christian Immler, baritone
Anna Stephany, mezzo-soprano
Christoph Berner, piano
Danny Driver, piano
Silvia Fraser, piano
Christian Immler, baritone
Anna Stephany, mezzo-soprano
Christoph Berner, piano
Danny Driver, piano
Silvia Fraser, piano
Utwory na płycie:
- Vier Ernste Gesänge, Op. 121 (1896) (Textes taken from the Bible) - No. 4 Wenn ich mit Menschen
- Three Songs, Op. 45 (1972) - No. 1 Now I have fed and eaten up the Rose (G. Keller, trans. J. Joyce)
- Three Songs, Op. 45 (1972) - No. 2 A Green Lowland of Pianos (J. Harsymowicz, trans. C. Milosz)
- Three Songs, Op. 45 (1972) - No. 3 O Boundless, Boundless evening (G. Heym, trans. C. Middleton)
- Arias and Barcarolles for Mezzo and Baritone and Piano Duet (1988) - I Prelude
- Arias and Barcarolles for Mezzo and Baritone and Piano Duet (1988) - II Love Duet
- Arias and Barcarolles for Mezzo and Baritone and Piano Duet (1988) - III Little Smary
- Arias and Barcarolles for Mezzo and Baritone and Piano Duet (1988) - IV The Love of my Life
- Arias and Barcarolles for Mezzo and Baritone and Piano Duet (1988) - V Greeting
- Arias and Barcarolles for Mezzo and Baritone and Piano Duet (1988) - VI Oif Mayn Kash’neh (At My Wedding)
- Der Schwanengesang D 957 (1828) - Der Atlas
- Arias and Barcarolles for Mezzo and Baritone and Piano Duet (1988) - VII Mr. And Mrs. Webb Say Goodnight
- Arias and Barcarolles for Mezzo and Baritone and Piano Duet (1988) - VIII Nachspiel (Postlude)
- Der Schwanengesang D 957 (1828) - Ihr Bild
- Der Schwanengesang D 957 (1828) - Das Fischermädchen
- Der Schwanengesang D 957 (1828) - Die Stadt
- Der Schwanengesang D 957 (1828) - Am Meer
- Der Schwanengesang D 957 (1828) - Der Doppelgänger
- Vier Ernste Gesänge, Op. 121 (1896) (Textes taken from the Bible) - No. 1 Denn es gehet dem Menschen wie dem Vieh
- Vier Ernste Gesänge, Op. 121 (1896) (Textes taken from the Bible) - No. 2 Ich wandte mich und sahe
- Vier Ernste Gesänge, Op. 121 (1896) (Textes taken from the Bible) - No. 3 O Tod, O Tod, wie bitter bist Du
Franz Schubert:
Der Schwanengesang, D 957
Johannes Brahms:
Vier Ernste Gesange, Op. 121
Samuel Barber:
Three Songs, Op. 45
Leonard Bernstein:
Arias and Barcarolles for Mezzo and Baritone and Piano Duet
Der Schwanengesang, D 957
Johannes Brahms:
Vier Ernste Gesange, Op. 121
Samuel Barber:
Three Songs, Op. 45
Leonard Bernstein:
Arias and Barcarolles for Mezzo and Baritone and Piano Duet
SWAN SONGS (Schwanengesänge)
“What remains? And to what extent are composers, when they compose, aware of how urgent that question is? In my opinion, these are the main themes that confront us in a “swan song” (a composer’s last work – or, as in the case of our recording, the last opus in his vocal output). In the second part of Schwanengesang – in the songs based on poems by Heine --- Schubert attains an unprecedented economy – or rather concentration – of means: the demands thereby made on the performer are literally “unheard of”. The text and the music express themselves so directly that the listener can find no refuge in musical solace.
Brahms’s Vier ernste Gesänge, written in 1896, one year prior to his death, paint an entirely different picture. I find that they reveal his inner struggle for personal truthfulness, his hope to attain an all-subliming love after so many years of painstaking sacrifice, while somehow managing to retain a certain kind of faith. To his friends he admitted that he thought he had composed “entirely godless songs” in Op. 121, although their texts “thank God, can be found in the Bible”.
His audience wanted to hear “religious songs”. That is what they seem to be on the surface, and the agnostic composer’s admirers have been ever since supposing that Brahms had waxed religious.
Samuel Barber’s last vocal work, the Three Songs Op. 45, has fascinated me ever since my student years, because of the songs’ multi-facetted style, their refined text and the music’s melancholy, morbid beauty. The second song, A Green Lowland of Pianos – the “funny one”, as Barber put it – elegantly whisks us off into an entirely different universe, a surreal décor in which it seems entirely natural that black pianos to listen every evening to frogs!
As ambiguous as life itself, and undoubtedly as scintillating and multi-facetted as Leonard Bernstein’s own personality: that is how his swan song, Arias and Barcarolles, presents itself. This musical potpourri of daily-life situations acted out by singers (usually based on the composer’s own poems) makes an explosive Broadway entrance in the first song.”
“What remains? And to what extent are composers, when they compose, aware of how urgent that question is? In my opinion, these are the main themes that confront us in a “swan song” (a composer’s last work – or, as in the case of our recording, the last opus in his vocal output). In the second part of Schwanengesang – in the songs based on poems by Heine --- Schubert attains an unprecedented economy – or rather concentration – of means: the demands thereby made on the performer are literally “unheard of”. The text and the music express themselves so directly that the listener can find no refuge in musical solace.
Brahms’s Vier ernste Gesänge, written in 1896, one year prior to his death, paint an entirely different picture. I find that they reveal his inner struggle for personal truthfulness, his hope to attain an all-subliming love after so many years of painstaking sacrifice, while somehow managing to retain a certain kind of faith. To his friends he admitted that he thought he had composed “entirely godless songs” in Op. 121, although their texts “thank God, can be found in the Bible”.
His audience wanted to hear “religious songs”. That is what they seem to be on the surface, and the agnostic composer’s admirers have been ever since supposing that Brahms had waxed religious.
Samuel Barber’s last vocal work, the Three Songs Op. 45, has fascinated me ever since my student years, because of the songs’ multi-facetted style, their refined text and the music’s melancholy, morbid beauty. The second song, A Green Lowland of Pianos – the “funny one”, as Barber put it – elegantly whisks us off into an entirely different universe, a surreal décor in which it seems entirely natural that black pianos to listen every evening to frogs!
As ambiguous as life itself, and undoubtedly as scintillating and multi-facetted as Leonard Bernstein’s own personality: that is how his swan song, Arias and Barcarolles, presents itself. This musical potpourri of daily-life situations acted out by singers (usually based on the composer’s own poems) makes an explosive Broadway entrance in the first song.”