Customer Reviews

The Jessye Norman Collection: Brahms and Schumann Lieder

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There is little in music with the intimacy and intensity of the art song when performed by a beautiful voice and a responsive pianist. This two-volume CD on Phillips by the beloved American soprano Jessye Norman (b. 1945) is part of a multi-volume retrospective of Ms. Norman's work titled simply "The Jessye Norman collection". It includes a CD devoted to the lieder of Brahms and a CD including two song-cycles by Robert Schumann. It is an outstanding disk.

Jessye Norman is an inspiring figure as a singer and as a person. Born in Augusta, Georgia to a musical family, she has performed throughout the world in a diverse repertory of opera, (including Gluck's "Alceste") lieder, spirituals, and jazz. In December, 1997, she received the Kennedy Center Honor Award, the youngest person ever to achieve this distinction. She is also widely revered for her humanitarian activities.

Ms Norman sings beautifully and powerfully in this collection of lieder. She has a powerful, dramatic voice, but it serves her well in these simple, intimate songs. The first CD includes 12 lieder by Johannes Brahms accompanied by Geoffrey Parsons. I have heard Parsons accompany Sir Thomas Allen in a collection of Brahms lieder on the Virgin label, and he is one of the finest of pianists for this music. Brahms composed songs throughout his career. They generally are of a simple, strophic and lyrical character and show a markedly different side of this composer than do his larger pieces. They also remain relatively unfamiliar except to lovers of art song. The higlights of this collection include the songs "Von ewiger Liebe", "Meine Liebe ist grun", "Wie Melodien Zieht es mir", and "Die Mainacht". The CD also includes Brahms' two songs opus 91 for voice, piano, and viola obligato in which Brahms combines lyricism and romanticism with his knowledge of the baroque. The simplicity of Brahms's art songs belies the musicality and effort just under the surface. This CD will make an ideal brief introduction to Brahms's songs throught the interpretive power of Jessye Norman and Geoffrey Parsons.

Unlike Brahms, Robert Schumann was at his best in small forms as a composer of song. The second CD in this collection includes two song-cycles the "Frauenliebe und Leben" opus 42 and "Liederkreis" opus 39 with pianist Irwin Gage accompanying Ms. Norman. Both these cycles consist of intense, personal, romantic music composed when young Robert Schumann was deeply in love with his hard-won and treasured wife, Clara.

"Frauenliebe und Leben" ("A woman's love and life") is a cycle of eight songs set to embarassingly bad and sentimental poetry by one Adelbert von Chamisso. But regardless of the poetry, Schumann projected the feelings of love into these songs which range widely in style from the operatic (No. 2, "Er der Herlichste von allen") to the most intimate, to the elegaic (No. 8, "Nun hast du mir den ersten Scdhmerza getan"). There is a fusion of voice and piano in these songs, as in the best of Schumann, which is a joy to hear.

The second cycle, Liederkreis, opus 39, consists of 12 songs set to the poetry of Joseph von Eichendorff. These songs are carefully arranged musically and thematically. They are generally mysterious and romantic and take place in the woods or in solitude and speak of love lost or love found and of death. The songs are in a variety of forms and include the ballade "Waldgesprach" (no. 3), the lovely and intense "Mondnacht", (no. 5) the song of longing, "Wehmut" (no. 9), and the final "Frulingsmacht" (no. 12) which concludes with the words, reminding the listener of Schumann and Clara, "She is yours, she is yours"! This cycle is Schumann at his greatest.

This CD includes informative liner notes about the songs and about Ms. Norman. Unfortunately, it fails to include the texts and translations of the songs, an omission which is most glaring for the Liederkreis. This all-too-common omission to one side, this CD offers a not to be missed experience of Brahms and Schumann transformed through the musical artistry of Jessye Norman.

Robin Friedman

I really enjoy these recordings that are at great tempi, they are great for diction and the musicianship is a fine quality.

This budget Philips two-fer is certainly worth the price since Jessye Norman is in prime voice here. But the early (1980) Brahms recital is much more simple and direct, while the Schumann recital finds her adopting a grand manner that is fairly fatal to Schumann's immediate, spontaneous gift. The Frauenliebe und Leben soundw diva-ish, and although it fares better becasue of its larger dramatic scale, the Liederkreis Op. 39 is also weighed down by Norman's platform manner. Three stars.

As a lieder composer Brahms needs help to sustian interest. His melodic gifts are always evident, but it's much easier to listen to Schubert and Schumann at a stretch. In part this is because Brahms was essentially a mature personality inclined toward fervor in the form of religion or reflection rather than immediate passion. He was also a genius, of course, so Jessye Norman has no problem in this 1980 recital gathering 12 masterpieces (most lieder recordings contain more like 20, but this feels like quite enough).

Her style is often deliberate and hushed, which is welcome since Brahms can be deliberate, period. She wants us to feel the thrill inside each song, and her plush, powerful voice with its many beauties does just that. I cannot think of a better Brahms recital on CD--my other favorites are by Von Otter and Quasthoff.

By contrast, Norman adopts a platform manner and too much dignity in her two Brahms recitals for DG with Daniel Barenboim (now available as a budget two-fer, as is this recording, which Philips has paired with Norman's somewhat overblown Schumann recital). Nor can I sit through two hours of Brahms lieder with uninterrupted rapture.

For me the highlight here is the first song, Von ewiger Liebe, which Norman takes very slowly but with convincing passion. She's impeccable in every song, really, and one only wishes that her accompanist, Geoffrey Parsons, had risen to her fiery level more often. He remains British throughout. Five stars.