557832 bk Schubert US 2/13/08 1:17 PM Page 8 Nikolaus Friedrich DEUTSCHE The clarinettist Nikolaus Friedrich studied with Hermut Giesser and Karl-Heinz Lautner at SCHUBERT-LIED-EDITION • 26 the Musikhochschulen in Düsseldorf and Stuttgart. After graduating with distinction he participated in master-classes in England with Thea King and Anthony Pay. Since 1984 he has been principal clarinettist in the Mannheim National Theatre Orchestra. In addition to appearances as a soloist at the Würzburg Mozart Festival and the Berlin Festival Weeks, he is active in chamber music, appearing with the Nomos, Henschel and Mandelring Quartets, Trio Opus 8, and with his duo partner Thomas Palm. He is strongly involved in the performance of SCHUBERT contemporary music. Photo courtesy of the artist Romantic Poets, Vol. 3 Sibylla Rubens, Soprano • Ulrich Eisenlohr, Piano Ulrich Eisenlohr Nikolaus Friedrich, Clarinet The pianist Ulrich Eisenlohr is the artistic leader of the Naxos Deutsche Schubert Lied Edition. He studied piano with Rolf Hartmann at the conservatory of music in Heidelberg/Mannheim and Lieder under Konrad Richter at Stuttgart. Specialising in the areas of song accompaniment and chamber music, he began an extensive concert career with numerous instrumental and vocal partners in Europe, America and Japan, with appearances at the Vienna Musikverein and Konzerthaus, the Berlin Festival Weeks, the Kulturzentrum Gasteig in Munich, the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Edinburgh Festival, the Frankfurt Festival, the International Beethoven Festival Bonn and the Photo: Wolfgang Detering Ludwigsburg Festival, the European Music Festival Stuttgart among many others. His Lieder partners include Hans Peter Blochwitz, Christian Elsner, Matthias Görne, Dietrich Henschel, Wolfgang Holzmair, Christoph Pregardien, Roman Trekel, Rainer Trost, Iris Vermillion, Michael Volle and Ruth Ziesak among others. Ulrich Eisenlohr has also appeared in numerous broadcast productions, live concert recordings and television tapings as well as recordings for leading record companies, of which several have been awarded major prizes, such as the German Record Critics’ Quarterly Award, a Grand Prix International from the Académie du Disque Lyrique in Paris and the Classical Internet Award. The conception and recording of all Schubert songs is by now an important focus of his artistic work. Ulrich Eisenlohr has been a lecturer at the conservatories of music in Frankfurt and Karlsruhe and has conducted master-classes in Lied and chamber music in Europe and Japan, with singers such as Ruth Ziesak, Jard van Nes and Rudolf Piernay. He has served as accompanist for master-classes with Hans Hotter, Christa Ludwig, Elsa Cavelti, Daniel Ferro (Juilliard School, New York) and Geoffrey Parsons. Since 1982 he has taught a Lieder class at the Mannheim Conservatory of Music. A co-production with SWR 8.557832 8 557832 bk Schubert US 2/13/08 1:17 PM Page 2 Franz Peter breadth of tone and feeling. The compositional mastery Schubert’s last compositions, might well be described as and deeply intimate involvement of the composer are the summum opus of his work as a song composer. In SCHUBERT apparent in its discreet and yet lucid portrayal of the many respects it is quite exceptional: the compilation of (1797-1828) “soft tread” of the moon in the heavens; the outburst at the text drawn from three separate poems, written, the dark confession with violent discords at “wenn ein moreover, by two different authors, Wilhelm Müller and Romantic Poets, Volume 3 schrecklicher Geier an der Seele nagt” (when a terrible Helmina von Chézy, is unique; the introduction of the vulture preys on the soul); the gloriously cheerful clarinet as a second melody instrument (or perhaps more 1 Lied der Delphine (Delphine’s Song), D857/1 (Schütz) 4:23 dancing gesture at “hüpfende Knabe” (skipped as a fairly “song-instrument”) is to be found in only one 2 boy); the totally unexpected and overwhelming change other composition, Auf dem Strome, which is likewise a Der Blumenbrief (The Message of Flowers), D622 (Schreiber) 2:16 at “unbekannten Sehnen” (unfamiliar longing) that late work, scored with horn; the large-scale tripartite 3 An den Mond in einer Herbstnacht seizes the poet’s young heart; the tender, melancholy form approaches the overall structure of the classical (To the Moon on an Autumn Night), D614 (Schreiber) 7:14 loving care at “Stätte, wo meine Lieben ruhn” (places sonata in several of its formal aspects and follows the wherein my loves rest); the restrained but anxious sequence “slow-fast-slow”. Thus it goes far beyond the 4 Geistliches Lied: Marie/Ich sehe dich… realization at “mein wird man nicht mehr gedenken” “normal” dimensions of the lied; the diversity of styles, (Spiritual Song: Marie/I see you...), D658 (Novalis) 1:23 (mine will no longer be remembered) and the ranging from alpine yodelling motifs in the first section, 5 Hymne: Wenige wissen das Geheimnis resumption of the flow that follows at “auf dieser through the seemingly endless tension expressing the schönen Erde” (on this beautiful earth), a musical deepest grief in the aria-like melody of the middle (Hymn: Few know love’s secret), D659 (Novalis) 7:58 representation of the earth’s course continuing. In Der section (reminiscent of Pamina’s famous aria “Ach, ich 6 Geistliches Lied: Wenn ich ihn nur habe Blumenbrief (The Message of Flowers), D622 2, fühl’s…”), to the effusive virtuoso coloratura of the final Schubert brings musical hyperbole to the well-known section. Ostensibly disparate elements are united in an (Spiritual Song: If only I have him), D660 (Novalis) 4:11 lyrical theme of the admirer’s desperate pleas and harmonious whole, the musical genius of which serves a 7 Geistliches Lied: Wenn alle untreu werden memorable music to his amiable threats that is richly purpose one alone: to give purity of expression to the (Spiritual Song: If all should be false), D661 (Novalis) 4:31 melodious and tender. Sprinkled with dissonances and profoundest human feeling in the face of the pleasure sighing motifs, it succeeds in balancing fantastic and tragedy of existence. 8 Geistliches Lied: Ich sag’ es jedem gravity with yearning veneration in masterly fashion. (Spiritual Song: I say to all), D662 (Novalis) 2:11 As an individual lied, Der Hirt auf dem Felsen, Ulrich Eisenlohr 9 Nachthymne: Hinüber wall ich (The Shepherd on the Rock), D965 $ , one of English translation by Neil Coleman (Night Hymn: I shall pass on), D687 (Novalis) 5:52 Sibylla Rubens 0 Blanka (Das Mädchen) (Blanka: The Maiden), D631 With her pure, almost angelic voice, Sibylla Rubens is unquestionably one of today’s most (Friedrich von Schlegel) 2:08 sought-after sopranos both at home and abroad. She is particularly committed to the concert ! Vom Mitleiden Mariä (Mary’s Compassion), D632 tradition thanks to her long-standing cooperation with Helmuth Rilling, Philippe Herreweghe and the Windsbach Boys’ Choir. Soon after her début with the Deutsches Symphonie- (F. von Schlegel after Friedrich Spee) 4:21 Orchester Berlin, she was invited to appear at such important venues as the Amsterdam @ Die verfehlte Stunde (The Hour That Failed), D409 Concertgebouw and Carnegie Hall, New York and has hence collaborated with many leading (August Wilhelm von Schlegel) 5:05 conductors such as Christian Thielemann, Roger Norrington, Herbert Blomstedt, Fabio Luisi, Marek Janowski and Kent Nagano. She currently sings worldwide in Haydn’s Paukenmesse, # Lob der Tränen (Praise of Tears), D711 Photo courtesy of the artist Beethoven’s Egmont, Mendelssohn’s Lobgesang and both Brahms’s and Schumann’s (August Wilhelm von Schlegel) 4:46 Requiem. She is also much in demand for Lieder recitals at locations as varied as Barcelona, $ Der Hirt auf dem Felsen (The Shepherd on the Rock), D965 Amsterdam and the Rheingau Music Festival. Her many recordings, among them the two big Bach Passions with Philippe Herreweghe, Schubert’s Lazarus, Bach’s St Mark’s Passion, the Mozart Requiem, (Wilhelm Müller, von Chézy) 11:38 Schumann and Humperdinck Lieder, are further testament to an exceptionally versatile artist. 8.557832 2 7 8.557832 557832 bk Schubert US 2/13/08 1:17 PM Page 6 of the two preceding contemplative settings. has a charm all of its own. The constant harmonic shifts THE DEUTSCHE SCHUBERT-LIED-EDITION Nachthymne (Night Hymn), D687 9, was written between major and minor are not expressive of in January 1820 as a “latecomer” to the other Novalis complete changes of mood in this case, but of an In 1816 Franz Schubert, together with his circle of friends, decided to publish a collection of all the songs which settings of May 1819. In its broad dimensions it is ambivalence of feeling caught between hope and fear. he had so far written. Joseph Spaun, whom Schubert had known since his school days, tried his (and Schubert’s) similar to the hymn Wenige wissen… and yet it is quite Like the poem, the music has a fair amount of aesthetic luck in a letter to the then unquestioned Master of the German language, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: different in nature and even more so in comparison with appeal and is similarly highly stylised as if it were A selection of German songs will constitute the beginning of this edition; it will consist of eight volumes. The the other Novalis lieder. The orchestral richness of behind glass. By comparison, both settings by Friedrich first two (the first of which, as an example, you will find in our letter) contains poems written by your Excellency, colour, the series of tremolos in the middle section over Schlegel’s brother August Wilhelm, Die verfehlte the third, poetry by Schiller, the fourth and fifth, works by Klopstock, the sixth by Mathison, Hölty, Salis etc., the which the voice unfolds in rapt, wide-ranging phrases at Stunde (The Hour That Failed), D409 @, and Lob der seventh and eighth contain songs by Ossian, whose works are quite exceptional.