And COLH 102-Just Deleted-Has Wolf's In
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Four Last Songs may be the pinnacle of Richard Strauss' Grenadiere (Seraphim S 60025). Among younger artists, writing for the soprano voice he loved so much, and the Christa Ludwig is outstanding: her excellent early (1959) recording Elisabeth Schwarzkopf made of them in the song recital on Seraphim S 60034 contains Schubert's early Fifties (not her recent stereo re-recording) is one Die Allmacht and Fischerweise,Brahms'Liebestreu of her finest achievements on discs. and Mainacht, Strauss' Allerseelen, and Mahler's Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen, Des Antonius von RECORDINGS of the pre-war generation of lieder Padua Fischpredigt, and Rheinlegendchen, among others. interpreters have come and-most of them-gone in The British contralto Helen Watts combines beauty of both the domestic and import catalogs, and fully rep- voice and great skill in a disc of Wolf songs-includ- resentative samples of the art of such singers as Ger- ing the popular Kennst du das Land? as well as the hard Hiisch, Tiana Lemnitz, and Heinrich Schlusnus other Mignon songs on poems of Goethe-coupled are sadly lacking. So too with the interpreter of this with Frauenliebe tend leben (Oiseau-Lyre SOL 293), era who is perhaps most familiar to American collectors, and in a Brahms-Schumann recital(Oiseau-Lyre SOL Lotte Lehmann: none of her celebrated lieder record- 268). The exquisite art of Victoria de los Angeles is ings are available except the Brahms-Wolf collection on applied to Brahms' Dein blaues Auge and a few other RCA Victrola VIC 1320. In this compilation, the 1947 lieder in the album "The Fabulous Victoria. ." (An- recordings, made when she was nearing sixty, are pain- gel S 35971). Finally, a convenient survey of a quarter - fultohear,but earlier sessions-Brahms' Botschaft century of lieder singing is provided by "The Art of (1937) and Meine Liebe lit grin (1935), Wolf's Ana- Gerald Moore" (Seraphim 60044), on which artists kreons Grab (1935), Auf ein (dies Bild (1939), and ranging from Karl Erb and Marta Fuchs up to Fischer- Auch kleine Dinge (1939)-give us some impression Dieskau and Christa Ludwig can be heard. of what this great performer must have been like in In recent years, American artists have given increas- her prime. Elisabeth Schumann isbetter represented: ing attention to the lied, and such singers as Grace the two discs devoted to her Schubert interpretations in Bumbry, James King, and Felicia Weathers have given Angel's Great Recordings of the Century series (COLH recorded evidence of much promise. And there is a new 130 and 131) contain many beautiful performances, star on the horizon: the recital of Schubert songs and among them Des Fischers Liebesglfick, Liebhaber in piano music on RCA Victrola VICS 1405, if it is rep- alien Gestalten, Heidenroslein, An die Nachtigall, Liebe resentative, shows us in the Dutch soprano Elly Arne - schwarmt auf alienWegen, Dais sieKier gewesen, ling a successor to Elisabeth Schumann and Irmgard See - Nacht and Traume, and the Romance from Rosamunde; fried (see review elsewhere in this issue). and COLH 102-just deleted-has Wolf's Inder Fruhe, In dem Schatten meiner Locken, Und willst du deinen Liebsten sterben sehen, Schlafendes Jesuskind, SONG TEXTS AND TRANSLATIONS and Fie glanzt der helle Mond. The superb lieder re- I1STENING to a lied without a thorough knowledge cordings of Irmgard Seefried seem now consigned to Iof what its German words mean is rather like oblivion, but the artist who was to Seefried as Lehmann listening to a string quartet played without its cello was to Schumann has been luckier: of recordings by part: one component of the whole is lacking. Though Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, in addition to those already men- record companies now generallyprovidetext -and - tioned, Angel 35023 contains Schumann's Der Nuss- translation inserts, this is by no means an invariable rule, and often the English translations are of dubious baum and Auftrage, Bist du bei mir (once attributed to value. Two excellent and inexpensive books help fill Bach, now thought to be by Stolzel), Wolf's Wiegen- the gap by providing song texts with English trans- lied im Sommer, Brahms' Da unten im Thale and lations that cleave closely enough to the original to Vergebliches Standchen, and Strauss' Hat gesagt and permit the reader to follow its sense from moment to Schlechtes lntier. The powerful if rather hard -driven moment. The Ring of Words, edited and translated by style of the great Jussi Bjorling toward the end of his Philip L. Miller (Doubleday Anchor, $1.95), is the more comprehensive:it contains poems in German, career can be heard on RCA LM 2003inStrauss' French,Italian,Russian, Spanish, and the Scandi- Caecilie and a number of other songs. Schubert's Die navian languages. Its utility as an adjunct to record junge Nonne and Schumann's Widmung are among the listening is limited, however, by its arrangement: the songs unforgettably rendered by Kathleen Ferrier on poems are grouped according to the poet who wrote London LL 1529. them and not the composer who set them. The Pen- guin Book of Lieder, edited and translated by S.S. Not all the lieder in Hans Hotter's album "Great Prawer ($1.45),is,as the title implies, confined to German Songs, Volume One" are just that, but there German texts; they are arranged by composer, from are moving performances of several that are: Schubert's Haydn to Hindemith, and short biographical sketches Im Abendroth, Im Fri -Ming, Sei mir gegrisst, and Ge- of the poets are provided at the end. -R.S.C. heimes, and Schumann's Erstes Grin and Die beiden 72 STEREO REVIEW.