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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Spectrally fascinating,
By
This review is from: The Hyperion Schubert Edition 11 / Brigitte Fassbaender, Graham Johnson (Audio CD)
Some voices possess such amazingly distinctive character and style! Brigitte Fassbaender is definitely one such voice. Her haunting performance of Mussorgsky's "Songs and Dances of Death" had set me on a journey of discovery. The peerless quality that Ms. Fassbaender has for depicting the darker side of beauty has been consistently delivered. Her Brangane, alongside the achingly superlative Margaret Price's Isolde, is taut with emotion and redolent with beauty. It must therefore have been cold logic or supernatural omen that led me to discover that both these enchanting singers each have a programme of lieder in the Hyperion Schubert Edition. Dame Price's programme of songs is based on the theme of night whereas Ms. Fassbaender's is centred in the theme of death.Dame Price and Ms. Fassbaender both share an alluring vocal quality: their voices are consistently sweet and rich (respectively...though BOTH are ravishingly beautiful) but interspersed with moments of celestial purity. Take track 12 here "Lied des Orpheus". Listen to the change in colouration where she sings the words "Klage" in the first line of the 5th verse. Or again in track 14 where, after introducing her menacing reference to the cold north, she then steals your very soul with the word "tragen" in the 5th verse. Listen to Dame Price's CD and you will find a similar appeal. Graham Johnson's accompaniment is not only beautifully played but perfectly complements his singer. His sense of control is clearly well-studied but not artificial in the least. There is a natural feel. The sound quality is pristine and the very slight echo in the acoustics adds to the proper "graveyard" feel of the work (see the picture on the cover...very pensive!). Finally, let me just say (with GREAT emphasis) that despite all this talk of death, this is a performance that will hold your rapt attention. A tried and proven stunner. We are experiencing the age of one who will be regarded as a great legend in the future. For me, she has already achieved that status. I highly recommend this disc, together with Dame Margaret Price's sealed performance of nocturnal bliss!
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Terrific, dark,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Hyperion Schubert Edition 11 / Brigitte Fassbaender, Graham Johnson (Audio CD)
Those looking for the darker side of Schubert will find it here. My favorite of the series (along with Margaret Price).
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A classic collection by a master interpreter of Schubert,
By
This review is from: The Hyperion Schubert Edition 11 / Brigitte Fassbaender, Graham Johnson (Audio CD)
Over the years I have assembled a small CD collection representative of Schubert's best and most popular songs; I do not need all 700. This is perhaps my favourite - certainly the one with which I would be most loath to part. It hangs together so well as a programme, centred on the theme of death without being morbid, especially when it includes melodies as liltingly lovely as "Auf dem Wasser zu singen". The collection is beautifully presented with some atmospheric graveyard pictures of the performers, the usual highly perceptive, informative and intelligent notes from pianist Graham Johnson, and full texts and translations.I do understand those who are uncomfortable with the sheer scale and fruity sound of Fassbaender's trenchant mezzo; her vibrato can occasionally start to obtrude and hers is always an emotive, emphatic interpretation, but her excursions into her lower register in a song such as "Der König in Thule" literally give me the shivers and in that same song you may hear her pellucid German diction, down to the little clipped emphasis of the plosive "t" on the end of "Lebensglut" and "Blut" in the fifth stanza. Fassbaender has the ability to inhabit each song and underline meaning in a truly memorable fashion. She has a highly individual voice but I do not hear the intonation difficulties or any technical weaknesses of the kind her detractors adduce; on the contrary, I think she gets exactly the effects she is aiming for - whether you like them is another matter. Listen to how she copes with the notoriously difficult "Auflösung"; its tessitura and sustained rising phrases, especially in the climactic conclusion with its awkward top F, have left many a lesser singer gasping for breath - and the muttered coda of "Geh unter Welt" is just right. There are so many such moments in this recital which have branded themselves on my consciousness that I am unable to hear these songs sung in any other way unless it is by an artist like Janet Baker who can take ownership of the idiom and put her own stamp on them. One thing Fassbaender definitely isn't is precious or artificial; she lives these songs as only one who has performed and thought about them for decades could - and Graham Johnson is with her every step of the way with his extraordinarily versatile and virtuosic accompaniment.
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