Customer Reviews

Anne Sofie von Otter - Schumann: Frauenliebe und -leben / Forsberg

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It's hard to imagine that there is no review of this CD here. It was recommended to me through a CD newsletter by a connoisseur of Schumann and of lieder. His comment was that these are sung as the composer himself would have wanted them sung. The singing is spectacular. Her phrasing, her portamento, her love of the music is unparalleled. The accompaniment is at least as amazing as the music. My accompanist, who has accompanied a lot of lieder singing, was overwhelemed by the quality of the playing. What we both found even more incredible was the absolute wedding of the singing and the playing. They are joined as a unit, flowing and moving and making beauty together. I have lots of lieder and have nothing which comes close.This one disc has given me more hours of pure joy, of pure enchantment, than any other I own. It's not passion music like opera. It's a beautiful rose with dewdrops on its petals, as exquisite and perfect as one could imagine. Five Stars doesn't begin to give it credit. It's off the scale. If you like lieder, do not miss this one.

Schumann's short cycle of 8 songs Frauenliebe und Leben is one of the most beautiful and affecting musical creations of the entire 19th century. The songs were written from the heart as he struggled to achieve his marriage to Clara over the opposition of her fearsome father, and the poems are the work of one Chamisso. It says something for the power of music that I find Schumann's settings adorable and compulsive listening while still thinking the lyrics absolutely insufferable. Here are poems, written by a man and put into the mouth of a woman, all to the effect of how wonderful he is. The writer of the English liner-note also makes this point, albeit with commendable urbanity and restraint.

It is a certain excess of fervour over urbanity that gives me just a few reservations about this disc as a whole, not just the Frauenliebe cycle. At its best the singing is simply wonderful, full of life and passion. Enthusiasm, generosity and wholehearted commitment are the essence of Schumann's personality, and these performers do not miss any of it. Schumann was a romantic among romantics, and not just as a lover and husband. As well as the `headline' song-cycle and a nicely selected set of Schumann's other songs, this recital contains his settings of 5 poems (in German translation) by Hans Christian Andersen. These have real atmosphere, both the words and the music, and the artists capture it very well indeed. They are also fully responsive to the range of moods in the works they have chosen. The English liner-note writer very properly highlights the Rueckert Volksliedchen as an exquisite example of its type, and von Otter and Forsberg give it just the right sense of lightness together with ardour.

The recording is hard to assess. There is a sense of spaciousness round the voice that seems to me quite exceptionally successful, what I'm not so convinced by is the way it treats the piano. The tone of the instrument is rich, and the playing is full-blooded as of course it should be and as one would expect from Forsberg. All the same, I would still have liked the general warmth restrained ever so slightly, both in the playing and in the way the recording captures it. I feel something similar about the singing, particularly at two points where von Otter's tone did not strike my ear as agreeably as it does elsewhere. The whole approach works a dream in the songs of Chaminade, and the disc of her chansons that these interpreters have done is one that I commend with a Schumannesque enthusiasm of my own. In Schumann's own music the fervour is abundant to superfluity, and this will not be lost if the interpreters just relax a little over it.

Recommended strongly, despite any minor qualifications. I would have wanted this disc just for Er, der Herrstlichste by itself.

Ms. von Otter's "Frauenliebe und -leben" alone would make this CD excellent! Besides, she concludes the whole selection with the best interpretation of "Rose, Meer und Sonne" I have ever heard, great Fischer-Dieskau's included!! The dramatic elements in "Loewenbraut" and "Der Soldat" are superbly expressed. The only reservation I have about it is that von Otter comes close to shrieking in "Lust der Sturmnact" when she tries to hit high, which is very hard on the ear. Maybe she should have transposed a little bit, even though it is against Schumann's original intention. If you have been enjoying von Otter's expressive rendering, you will love her "Muttertraum" and "Verratene Liebe". Given the wonderful voice and singing, without Forsberg's astonishingly vivid playing, half of the pleasure would have been gone. Just listen to how he builds up the variations of feelings with the strophic form of "Rose, Meer und Sonne". In summary, this is one of the CD's no lieder fans can afford to miss!!

As a recent review in the ARG said of most lieder albums, a good start, come back in ten years when the voice has matured. This is not the case here. Even though it is nearly ten years after the recording, it is still outstanding. Can't say enough good. Put it on and listen over and over. She does everything without sounding artificial--she means it all. A perfect match for singer, music, words, pianist, recording. And give us more, please. BUY IT.

This is really a review just of the Frauenliebe: it's a beautiful interpretation, both from the singer and the pianist. Full of emotion and of course technically wonderful.

My only reservations are that it's a little idiosyncratic in terms of style, and the performers play with the tempi excessively I feel. For example I find Susser Freund and Ich kann's nicht fassen, nicht glauben both too slow throughout, and Du Ring am meinem finger is completely dripping with emotion and rather cloying.

However the overall effect is beautiful and certainly the final movement of the songcycle is about the most tragically emotional you will ever here - when the piano comes in at the end to reprise the theme from the beginning most people will find their eyes pricking with tears.

I've been listening to this CD over and over again recently and I want to recommend it strongly. von Otter's singing is beautiful and is more accomplished in terms of interpretation than certain of her other CDs (I thought her Berlioz and Sibelius recordings were deficient from the musicianship standpoint). Forsberg accompanies her very well.

Besides the interpretation, the selection of songs makes this CD excellent. I have been listening to Schumann through my whole life and never encountered the final song, "Rose, Meer und Sonne", which strikes as me as a major work - and a very touching one. (von Otter sings it operatically but very well.) The musicians alse made some judicious selections from the songs outside the big lieder cycles, including a wonderful song about snowflakes (track 25) and an excerpt from William Tell (track 22), which aren't particularly well-known. The performance of "Mother's dream" (track 17, part of the Op. 40 cycle) is incredible and is the first song that made a big impression on me. It's disturbing and shows the neurosis and morbid undertones of so much Romantic art.

I've also done some performance comparisons of the centerpiece of the disc, the Frauenliebe cycle, and I very much like von Otter's interpretation, although I'd rank it just slightly behind Elly Ameling's version. von Otter I don't think gets the final, eighth song "Nun hast due mir" but the other songs are affecting and conveyed very sympathetically.

I highly recommend this CD. If you like Schumann or good singing, purchase it immediately!

It's hard to think such a modest looking CD would contain some of the best Lieder works by Robert Shumann. I have NEVER heard a good version of "Frauenliebe un Leben" until now! This is a MUST for Shumann lovers! You will not be sorry.

Schuman's 'Frauenliebe und Leben' and other Lieder, realized by mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie Von Otter and her favorite accompaniest, Bengt Forsberg is definitely not the finest song cycle of the 19th century (I believe atleast one or two of Schubert's cycles fit that billing), but it is a great listen none the less, as Schumann is at least the second greatest writer of Lieder ever.

After listening to Von Otter's releases on Schubert and Brahms' Lieder, I would rate this work equally as good from the point of view of the artist, but I enjoy Shubert more, because of the more familiar material, especially the heavenly 'Ave Maria'.

All personal blather aside, this is a very good album, whether your thing is Schumann or Von Otter.