Composer: Franz Peter Schubert
Performer: Christian Gerhaher, Gerold Huber
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Sony
Catalogue: 88985427402
Release: 2017
Size: 691 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: cover
Die schöne Müllerin, D795
01. Der Dichter, als Prolog
02. 1. Das Wandern
03. 2. Wohin?
04. 3. Halt!
05. 4. Danksagung an den Bach
06. 5. Am Feierabend
07. 6. Der Neugierige
08. Das Mühlenleben
09. 7. Ungeduld
10. 8. Morgengruß
11. 9. Des Müllers Blumen
12. 10. Tränenregen
13. 11. Mein!
14. 12. Pause
15. 13. Mit dem grünen Lautenbande
16. 14. Der Jäger
17. 15. Eifersucht und Stolz
18. Erster Schmerz, letzter Scherz
19. 16. Die liebe Farbe
20. 17. Die böse Farbe
21. Blümlein Vergissmein
22. 18. Trockne Blumen
23. 19. Der Müller und der Bach
24. 20. Des Baches Wiegenlied
25. Der Dichter, als Epilog
14 years after his first recording, the acclaimed baritone and “most moving singer of the world” (The Telegraph) turns back to Die schöne Müllerin together with long-time collaborator and pianist: Gerold Huber.
Die schöne Müllerin has always been seen as the most important lieder cycle because of its full-length narrative dimension based on a popular and rather simple story: a disillusioned love between a miller’s daughter and a young miller’s apprentice.
With this new recording of Die schöne Müllerin including five poems, not set to music by Schubert, Christian Gerhaher turns Schubert’s famous song cycle with new insights and a new approach.
Christian Gerhaher gives insights of his new interpretation in the booklet he wrote especially for this release.
German baritone Christian Gerhaher and his accompanist/partner-in-creativity Gerold Huber have risen to the top of the heap in primary lied repertory, and it is easy to see why. In their second turn through Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin, Gerhaher could simply have applied his golden baritone, and everybody would have been happy. Instead, he steps into character and conveys the unsettled psyche of the cycle’s frustrated protagonist. He may gain strength at times, whereupon the famed Gerhaher sound comes through, but the cycle has a convincing dramatic arc that ends in unhappiness and weakness. Sample Trockne Blumen toward the end for the full range. Another Gerhaher innovation here is the inclusion of unset poems, recited by Gerhaher at the beginning, at the end, and along the way. This both breaks the tension and provides a more complex context to the whole sequence, and it’s certainly something that one can imagine Schubert and his friends doing in their chambers. The booklet of the CD version has more on Schubert, Müller, and their orbit. A masterful, extremely satisfying remaking of some famous songs, and a Die schöne Müllerin that elevates the cycle to the level of Die Winterreise, D. 911.