Schubert: Die Schone Mullerin

Gerhaher (Artist), Huber (Artist)

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 12, 2006)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Arte Nova Classics
• ASIN: B000H7J9XK
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #215,161 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
"[Gerhaher’s] voice, reminiscent of Fischer-Dieskau’s, also exhibits many of that master-singer’s stylistic virtues … this is interpretation of Lieder at the highest level … the recording itself is faultless. Listeners who want to hear the cycle for the first time need have no fear that they are will get anything less than the best, in spite of the asking-price. It is a performance that will stand the test of time and repetition" - GRAMOPHONE

Die schöne Müllerin (The Fair Miller Maid), a cycle of twenty songs, is one of the greatest and most beloved of all Schubert’s hundreds of Lieder. As a student Christian Gerhaher attended the opera school of the Munich Musikhochschule, where he sang Papageno in Mozart’s Zauberflöte under the direction of Sir Colin Davis and participated in Helmut Deutsch’s Lieder classes with Gerold Huber, who was to become his regular accompanist. He also took courses with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, and Inge Borkh. In 1998, he won the International Award Pro Musicis in Paris/New York. In 2002, he was awarded the German prize Echo Klassik for Best Lied Interpretation for his recording of Schubert’s Winterreise. Following his international Lied debut in the chamber music hall at Carnegie Hall, he has performed as a guest with the Leipziger Gewandhaus, Vienna Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. Gerold Huber studied piano with Friedemann Berger and Lied performance with Helmut Deutsch at the Munich Musikhochschule as well as with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau in Berlin. In 1998 he won the International Award Pro Musicis in Paris and in 2001 was prizewinner of the International Piano Competition Johann Sebastian Bach in Saarbrücken.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wow, December 15, 2006

By	A reader (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews

I can't pretend to be a lieder expert, or to have heard most of the dozens of recordings made of this cycle, but I've listened to (and lived with) several and this one immediately stands out as something special. Don't be mislead by the low price; this is a performance of the highest quality, and the recording may offer the finest reproduction of voice and piano that I've personally heard. With music that has been recorded by so many eminent artists I don't believe any reasonable person could ever claim there is a single 'best' recording, but I can state that this is a performance that deserves--even demands--to be heard by anyone interested in this music. This is most impressive.

4.0 out of 5 stars ****, August 22, 2008

By	mackjay (Cambridge, MA) - See all my reviews

Christian Gerhaher has a voice to be reckoned with, at least as far as Schubert and DIE SCHÖNE MÜLLERIN is concerned. This is nuanced, beautiful, expressive singing that matches music and text perfectly. Gerhaher is billed as a baritone, but he's definitely of the lighter, or higher baritone breed. He manages the high passages without forced falsetto effects or histrionics. He's completely inside this incredible music, and his accompanist is right there with him. The performance can stand with the best--and there are many good and great ones. It almost makes up for the absence of the great recording that Herrmann Prey made for Decca in 1972 with Karl Engel. Highest recommendation to all fans of this work.