1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Huesch is the very best, but the used re-seller was a crumb bun, February 22, 2009
This review is from: Art of Schubert Lieder (Audio CD)
Gerhard Huesch is the very best of the German lieder tradition. I discovered him in the 1990s, and had since spent countless hours listening to a tape of his Schwanengesangen, which a friend copied from an old LP recording. Therefore it was a joy to discover an available copy of Huesch's Schubert interpretations in a CD collection.
I never understood why he was so little known in the U.S.A. When I had an opportunity to ask the now- dear-departed Sylvia Olden Lee what she thought of him, she informed me that she had worked with him as an accompanist after the War, and learned much of what she knew of the German lied from him! Why was he not better known, I asked "Oh, they tried to tar him with the Nazi brush," she told me. Sounds like he got the same unjust treatment as Furtwaengler (as Yehudi Menuhin was later to discover, and to courageously oppose). If Huesch was such a Nazi, why was he training an Afro-American woman in lieder accompaniment, I wondered. Listen to his interpretations, and you will hear there is no Nazi there, if you have ears to hear.
But Huesch is not all. Also interpreting Schubert on this multiple CD set are: Heinrich Schlussnus, Karl Erb, Aksel Schotz ("the voice of the Danish resistance") Elisabeth Schumann, Lotte Lehman, Jussi Bjoerling, and some lesser-known greats from the past. Get it if you ever have the chance. You will be delighted.
It appears the item is not presently available. I got my set from a used seller. It arrived with most of the spindles on the CD jewel cases broken, and he made no effort to replace them or arrange a partial refund, despite several emails. That crumb bun should be removed from Amazon's approved list.
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