Customer Reviews

Schubert: Lieder with Orchestra

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This recording isn't a mere experiment. It's the result of a very profound research. The first track is the beginning of this fascinating path: One orchestral lied by Schubert himself. And after this Lied from the "Rosamunde" the discoveries : Schubert orchestrated by Britten , Brahms , Reger, Berlioz, Liszt, Webern and Offenbach. The most interesting orchestrations are undoubtedly : Ellens Zweiter Gesang , that Brahms scored for Four Horns and Three bassoons, Erlkönig , that Berlioz transformed in a symphonic storm, and the four delicates orchestrations conceived by the 20 years old Anton Webern .
Not only the research is fascinating. The realization is also outstanding. Anne Sophie von Otter , one of the most important Lieder singer in the world. Her recordings of Strauss, Grieg, Berg, Brahms and Schubert with the excellent pianist Bengt Forsberg are among the most interesting lieder recording of the last 20 years .She sings these orchestral versions with the same sense of intimacy of a original (piano) version , with some interesting "orchestral" affinities in her emission, specially in Die Junge Nonne ( orchestrated by Liszt) and in Die Forelle ( orchestrated by Britten). Thomas Quasthoff has a more Symphonic approach . But he is capable of wonderful intimate sonorities in the four Webern Orchestrations. The Chamber Orchestra of Europe conducted by Claudio Abbado are more than mere support for the voices. The intelligence of the conductor lead this fascinating research to a very high level of intensity , always with a flawless sense of musicality.

At last a serious vocal project with orchestra from DG! I can't find enough praise. These Schubert songs orchestrated by various composers are not easy to come by and it was a stroke of genius to put them together on one disc and have them sung by two great Lieder singers. I only knew Berlioz's orchestration of the Erlkoenig (sung in French by Charles Panzera), here we get two: Berlioz's (sung by von Otter) and Reger's (sung by Quasthoff). All the orchestrations are little gems and it would be hard to single out the "greatest hits". I was quite impressed with Liszt's orchestration of "Die junge Nonne" which sounded to me very Berliozian (maybe even more than Berlioz's Erlkoenig).
Throughout the disc, von Otter sings with decidedly more operatic tone (often extremely dramatic) than Quasthoff. I won't pretend that I know what style is more appropriate for singing Lieder with orchestra but both von Otter's operatic approach and Quasthoff's more subdued one work very well here. Abbado's conducting must not be overlooked - it is beautifully nuanced and adds to the pleasure of listening to these miniatures.

It is a live concert from Paris, no applause is recorded even after the concert, before the two encores that end the disc, so they come 'unannounced' (although they are listed in the booklet on a separate page) and somehow break the structure of the recital which is divided into two parts, the first belonging to ASvO, the second to TQ. I found it a bit distracting but I am sure others would complain if the applause was recorded so this only proves how tricky it is to transfer live concerts and preserve the concert's structure and atmosphere on disc. But this is a minor problem here. This disc is a real gem and I wish DG made more recordings of this kind, using these two great artists instead of spending money on the useless and repetitive opera arias recitals from young and inexperienced singers that seem to be their priority nowadays.

I was present to this concert in Paris where this CD has been recorded live. It was really breathtaking! A great moment of pure music, of pure emotion. Very interesting on the musicologic point of view too, it is amazing to hear Schubert's Lieder adorned with orchestral colours. Do not hesitate, get it right away! This is two of the most magnificent woices of our time and this is... the great ABBADO.

This is an excellent recording, and it is interesting with rare repertoire: Schubert lieder with orchestra instead of the usual piano part. There are lieder here sung by Anne Sofie von Otter (about 1/2 the program) and Thomas Quasthoff (the 2nd 1/2) with Claudio Abbado/Chamber Orchestra of Europe. Among the songs are orchestrations by Brahms, Reger, Britten, and other famous composers.

The orchestrations stand up very well, and highlight the text and vocal line of the music, as a good pianist would. Abbado is excellent here: responsive to every nuance and dynamic shading of the singer he is accompanying. These are live recordings from a Paris concert, but the audience is so quiet, I never hear them.

This was one of my favorite recordings in 2003, and still is today. I especially like "An Schwager Kronos" and "Erlking" in orchestral form. And, if you're not sure about Abbado's Schubert: his DG cycle of the Schubert Symphonies has not been well received in AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE and other publications, but have no fear in this release. Abbado is top notch here, and conducts with sensitivity and grace. Highest recommendation!

This compilation contains 21 songs, all from about 2 1/2 minutes to about five minutes. The first half is performed by Anne Sofie von Otter, while the second half by Thomas Quasthoff. Of these, I most liked song #4 (GRETCHEN), #4 (SILVIA), #9 (ERLKONIG), #16 (MEMNON), #17 (SCHWAGER), #19 (another ERLKONIG), and #21 (STANDCHEN). There are two renditions of Erlkonig. They are the same pieces, except orchestrated by different composers, and the first is sung by Ms.von Otter, while the second by Mr.Quasthoff.

#1. ROMANZE. This piece is slow with little flute embellishments, and a sighing motif provided by the orchestra.

#2. FORELLE. This piece was written in 1817. The same tune can be found in the fourth movement of Schubert's Quintet in A Major, which was written two years later (1819), when Schubert was 22 years old. The clarinet part of FORELLE sounds like honking geese. The honking-goose tune has a sing-song quality. There are other pieces on this compilation that I much more prefer. Halfway through this piece is a dramatic orchestral shivver.

#3. ELLEN. The entire piece features a mellow cluster of French horns.

#4. GRETCHEN. The orchestral accompaniment is like from the middle of a symphony, sounding like a Mahleresque maelstrom. This is a 3 minute and 27 second symphony. Love it. I'd call this piece, "Mahler's Lost Symphony No. 11."

#5. SILVIA. The accompaniment features percussive thrusts of cellos, with continual sawing motifs from the violins. The tune is a catchy one, reminding me for some reason, of the actions of twisting or folding, or of tying one's shoe laces.

#6. ABENDROT. Moderate paced with a variety of instruments.

#7. NACHT. The voice stands out in this calm piece, and the orchestra -- mostly strings -- remains totally in the background.

#8. GRUPPE. An approaching hurricane is provided by the orchestra, then the voice joins in. Half-way through, the bombastic hurricane approaches again. Sounds a little like Mahler's Des Klagenlied.

#9. ERLKONIG. This has a distinctive, "Dah-dah-dah-dah-dah, BUM-BUM-BUM" motif, that is provided by the stringed bass section. The motif is like an arch or a bridge, when it goes, "Dah-dah-dah-dah-dah, BUM-BUM-BUM."

#10. NONNE. The singing is dramatic and loud, but the tunes and motif are not as distinguished as the others on this compilation.

#11. TRANENREGEN. This gentle piece has strings and clarinets in the background. Not a really distinctive piece.

#12. WEGWEISER. This is from Schubert's WINTERREISE.

#13. RUH. This piece is quiet and slow. But there are episodes where the singing picks up in a sudden crescendo.

#14. SCHWANENGESANG. Another slow piece. The piece starts out sad, but in the final 20 seconds, gets happy and loud.

#15. PROMETHEUS. This piece is melodramatic, like an opera. The piece starts and stops and starts, like different characters taking turns bellowing to each other in a typical opera.

#16. MEMNON. This lively piece has plenty of variety in the singing -- low notes, high notes, fast, slow. (Please pardon my excessively academic and obscure analysis of the music. It is easy to get overly pedantic when writing opinions about music.)

#17. SCHWAGER. This tune is better than average for this compilation. The orchestra provides a continual, driving motif of triplets.

#18. MUSIK. The tune is pretty and the orchestra provides a gentle and restrained accompaniment.

#19. ERLKONIG. This is exactly the same piece as set forth in track #9. But here, Mr. Quashoff sings, whereas in track #9, Ms.von Otter sings. Actually, there is another difference. One ERLKONIG is orchestrated by Berlioz, while the other is orchestrated by Reger.

#20. GEHEIMES. The orchestra provides little sucking sounds, reminding me of a vacuum cleaner being touched on various parts of a cloth chair. Ms.von Otter's singing also takes the form of little spurts.

#21. STANDCHEN. Mr. Quasthoff sings to a varied accompaniment of pizzicato strings, then horns, then winds. The tune is a great one, and much of it can be sung by a layperson. The tune has excellent pop-sensibilities, and could easily be arranged for a contemporary crooner.

CONCLUSION. This is an ideal album for people who like melodies and tunes. Any layperson who likes classical music might have acquired the notion that tunes and melodies in classical music went out of style, with the onset of serial composing techniques and minimalism. Any person who likes rock'n'roll will be struck with the cold, harsh reality, that tunes in pop music went out of style in the late 1970s. This album of Schubert compositions is the ideal remedy for people disappointed with the dearth of tuneful or melodious music in both the classical realm, and in pop music. For people who prefer that their music actually have tunes or melodies, I also recommend this other stunning album, possibly overlooked by many: J.S. Bach 6 Favourite Cantatas BWV 147, 80, 140, 8, 51, 78, with The Bach Ensemble, and directed by Joshua Rifkin.

I am relatively new to Schubert's lieder. When I first found out about this CD, I was not very interested because it is not the traditional way that Schubert's songs are performed. They are supposed to be small, delicate gems that are performed in an intimate fashion to preserve their beauty. This is a recording of all of Schubert's songs that have been orchestrated by such "heavy weights" as Berlioz, Reger, Weber, and Liszt. I heard this CD one night on XM Radio's VOX channel driving home from work. I was tired, stressed out, and in a bad mood. However,once I started listening to Anne Sofie von Otter and Thomas Quasthoff, all of these feelings just melted off of me. It was extraordinary. The music was of such beauty that I was mesmerized. The orchestrations added weight and gravitas to these songs that heightened the emotions that they impart in the listener. If you are new to Schubert's lieder, I still recommend a more traditional performance such as Janet Baker's two-disc set on EMI Classics, Franz Schubert: Lieder, to become familiar with them. However, I cannot recommend a CD more highly and I know that I will be listening to this CD again and again.

This is certainly a fascinating enterprise, but I am less sure that the end result is of much more than specialist interest - not that the performances are in any way bad (certainly not), and some of the arrangements are indeed interesting, but the vast majority of these songs sound distinctly better in their original garments. It is particularly obvious when you compare them to the Romanze D797/3b from Rosamunde and thus originally with orchestra and realize how much more natural and effortless it sounds than the other arrangements; maybe it is because of the orchestrations more than the very idea of orchestrating them, but the intimacy and the nuances of the originals are irredeemably lost, and the melodic contours even seem to be to a large extent washed out. Still, there are some really fine items here.

The arrangements are more or less evenly divided between von Otter (the first ten) and Quasthoff (the next nine) (plus one encore each at the end), and I should mention right away that von Otter's singing is superb; light and colorful and no more or less expressive than needed - with the original piano accompaniments her tone might have been a little too big, but in these versions it sounds exactly right. Quasthoff's voice is no less impressive; warm and gentle, but with enough dramatic impact when needed, and with plenty of character. Abbado directs some generally fine performances from the Chamber Orchestra of Europe; the intermittent odd balance or lack of a clear line is probably not anything I can blame them for.

Following the Rosamunde extract is one of the most successful arrangements on the disc - Britten's version of Die Forelle, which is sensitively but imaginatively scored (the trout is excellently depicted the clarinet). The Brahms and Reger arrangements are more variable; they have many good and inventive ideas, but the results are often too dense and heavily romantic for these often light and fragile songs. The Brahms arrangements seem often to make subtle nuances and hints too obvious and thus flat for comfort (the horn call in Ellens Zweiter Gesang) or - when he decides to be more careful - just plain unremarkable and adding nothing to the originals apart from a certain layer of mist; Geheimes is just plain unremarkable, and Am Schwager Kronos rather bland, although Memnon is actually rather fine.

Reger's version of Gretchen's spinning wheel works rather well, altering the atmosphere of the piece but creating a rather striking work itself. Im Abendrot is another atmospheric orchestration, but Gruppe aus dem Tartarus becomes too unsubtle and Nacht und Träume seems to elude the arranger, sounding more like a string of effects rather than anything adding up to a whole. Only Quasthoff includes any Webern arrangement; Tränenreigen is tender and fragile and so is Der Wegweiser, neither adding much to or subtracting from the originals - still, they are worth hearing - but Ihr Bild far too plush and soggy. I liked the arrangement of Du bist die Ruh, however, which becomes a sophisticated miniature tone poem. Offenbach's version of Ständchen sounds seriously out of place and Liszt's arrangement of Die junge Nonne is also strangely weak, but I suspect the performance actually cushions it more than ideally. The anonymous arrangement of An Sylvia' is heavy on the strings and the insensitive arrangement makes this light, innocent piece sound almost cloying; von Otter sings it well as always, though, and almost weighs up for the added syrup.

I've left the worst for last, however - the two arrangements of Erlkönig, by Berlioz and Reger respectively, are quite simply dreadful. Berlioz's version is pompous and empty and incoherent, and there is nothing von Otter can do to save it. This is an intensely dramatic, urgent and even harrowing work; Berlioz makes it sound like a chase scene from a Tom & Jerry cartoon but without the wit, charm and bustling intensity of the latter - a real disaster. Reger's is only marginally better; more cohesive, but the colors and textures still seem all wrong; it is dark and probing and menacing, but the attempt to sound dramatic or urgent sounds merely desperate to the point of self-parody. To sum up then, this is indeed an interesting disc in its own right, and the performances are generally impeccable (with the few exceptions mentioned); sound quality is fine, however. Mostly for the specialist, then, but I cannot help being grateful that I've heard it.

The debate over an arrangement's fidelity to the original is about as reasonable as debating how true Beethoven was to Diabelli's little waltz. Anyway Bach is the great example, both in his own practice 250 years ago and in the practice his music inspired in 250 years of later arrangers, transcribers, plunderers, parodists...afficianados. It's like Borges' Library of Babel: all the possibilities exist, it's a GENEROUS library, so HELP YOURSELF, take as much as you want, there's plenty for everyone, plenty to reject, plenty to embrace. About this recording: world-class personnel, and a wonderful sampling of what some world-class composers did with Schubert lieder. The sampling whetted my appetite to get to know more, eg, the Reger arrangements (and there're at least 2 recordings). The orchestration and Ms von Otter's gorgeously SUPPRESSED presentation of Nacht und Traume amazes me for sheer TECHNICAL accomplishment, but that aside, the perfomance reveals beauty in Schubert's song transcending time-place-individuality. What a GIFT such arranging is to us!

I know these Lieder very well, having sung and/or accompanied most of them. I have many recordings of them by the great singers of several generations, all with piano accompaniment as composed by Schubert. This recording is different in that all of the songs are accompanied by orchestra, the orchestrations made by Berlioz, Brahms, Liszt, Reger, Webern and Britten. One Lied, Erlkönig, is performed twice - once by von Otter with orchestration by Berlioz, once by Quasthoff with orchestration by Reger. I find every one of these performances simply wonderful - different from the originals, to be sure, but wonderful in their own right. Both singers are at the top of their (very high) form and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe is superbly conducted by Claudio Abbado. The DG recording is fine too. I realize that purists may be scandalized by these departures from Schubert, but they are also often upset by the use of a modern piano tuned to equal temperament and insist that justice can only be done to Schubert with a period fortepiano tuned to a temperament he would have recognized. These Lieder sound good that way too, but I also enjoy them with a modern instrument (after all, while Schubert's piano was tuned differently, so were the ears of his audience), and also with these imaginative orchestrations. Highly recommended.

The vocals sound fine, but the subsonic noise recorded on this album will drive your woofers crazy. If your speakers reproduce low frequencies at 50 Hz and below, you will need a low pass cut off filter to play this disc. If not, you will see your grill cloth moving as the woofers attempt to play the subsonic noise on every track this album. DG has done it again. They manage to ruin recordings with their recording engineer processing.