BaL 29.04.17 - Schumann: Liederkreis (Op.24)

[gurnemanz]

But Natasha Loges is one of the very best people to be heard on R3, I'll certainly be listening to this one!

Echo that. And of course her husband is the fine German baritone, Stephan Loges, born in Dresden, alumnus of the Kreuzchor and frequently to be heard in Lieder.

[verismissimo]

So ... Bostridge with Drake. Hard to explain why I'm so allergic to his work.

[LeMartinPecheur]

Much happier with what we heard from Bostridge here than in the live Britten Serenade earlier this week - see separate thread.

I might even buy it

[pastoralguy]

I'm not crazy about lieder - unless it's Richard Strauss; so I'll wash the car instead!

That tends to be my feelings too but I was much moved by this music. After Bostridge was announced, I went to Amazon and found that each used copy was unavailable as I attempted to buy it! Obviously others were equally impressed

[Nevilevelis]

So ... Bostridge with Drake. Hard to explain why I'm so allergic to his work.

Not to me, it isn't! Agreed.

[gurnemanz]

So ... Bostridge with Drake. Hard to explain why I'm so allergic to his work.

I'm not always allergic but was here. It seemed to be laden with the sort of interpretative effects which might irritate on repeated hearing. Eg the push on the word Wehmut (melancholy) in the last extract played was for me just slightly overdone. I found the survey interesting as far as it went but much was missed. Peter Schreier wasn't even mentioned, neither was one of my favourites - Wolfgang Holzmair with Imogen Cooper.

[aeolium]

I thought it was a very interesting BaL with several very fine recordings. I particularly liked the Prégardien from the extracts played, and the one Souzay extract sounded wonderful, every emphasis just right. But I thought that the reviewer relied overly on the song texts in determining the appropriate interpretation, whereas it seems to me that Schumann's reactions to Heine's texts - in this cycle and in Dichterliebe - are subtly (and sometimes not so subtly) different from the characteristics of the poems themselves, reflecting Heine's sometimes mocking, ironic and semi-detached observation of Romantic tropes. Schumann is more avowedly romantic than Heine, and sometimes that can result in a fruitful discordance between music and text. But that's just a personal view.

[Richard Tarleton]

Indeed, no Schreier. How anyone can prefer.....

Ah well.

I did like that Souzay excerpt.

[Nevilevelis]

I thought it was a very interesting BaL with several very fine recordings. I particularly liked the Prégardien from the extracts played, and the one Souzay extract sounded wonderful, every emphasis just right. But I thought that the reviewer relied overly on the song texts in determining the appropriate interpretation, whereas it seems to me that Schumann's reactions to Heine's texts - in this cycle and in Dichterliebe - are subtly (and sometimes not so subtly) different from the characteristics of the poems themselves, reflecting Heine's sometimes mocking, ironic and semi-detached observation of Romantic tropes. Schumann is more avowedly romantic than Heine, and sometimes that can result in a fruitful discordance between music and text. But that's just a personal view.

Absolutely!

&

A fine observation, and very much my own in this cycle.

NVV

[ardcarp]

From what I heard on Record Review, this was Bostridge at his best; never over-stretched. I wonder why listening to voices of the past (in this case Garard Souzay) makes one wonder if they had something that the modern generation...of tenors, baritones and basses specifically....doesn't have? Or is this merely nostalgia for a bygone age on my part?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Always a huge Souzay fan.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

... the sort of interpretative effects which might irritate on repeated hearing. Eg the push on the word Wehmut (melancholy) in the last extract played was for me just slightly overdone.

Yes - this sums up my own usual reaction to Bostridge, and not merely on repeated hearing: the squeezed notes, the precious, affected phrasing ... the hammy "acting" that gets between me and the Music. I am with the Bostridge-allergic company, and would merely alter gurne's comment here to remove the penultimate "slightly".

But, Mark Padmore and Christopher Maltman both sounded splendid to me, and their names have gone on "the list"

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Incidentally, can anyone tell me where I can find a copy of the Beethoven Seventh which includes a "funeral march"?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Always a huge Souzay fan.

[aeolium]

Incidentally, can anyone tell me where I can find a copy of the Beethoven Seventh which includes a "funeral march"?

Stokowski, Philadelphia SO 1927 (my first exposure to the work, via 78s)