From: conrad@brahms.udel.edu (Jon Conrad)
Newsgroups: rec.music.classical
Subject: Re: Schubert
Date: 16 Dec 92 19:56:27 GMT
Organization: University of Delaware

In article <92351.102652RHASKINS@UMAB.BITNET> RHASKINS@UMAB.BITNET (Robert Haskins) writes:

>> From: i323859@phceaa20.cad-sg.ce.philips.nl ( HENK MEULENDIJKS     )
>> Subject: Schubert
>> Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1992 12:52:23 GMT

>> Let you know that ther are two CD boxes each 9 CD's with all the
>Schubert-songs available by DG
>> This is no Import box
>> I haven't heart them yet but surely going to buy them.

>Do you know (or does anyone know) who's singing on this set?  It's
>surely not complete, is it?  Or is it?  

It's not.  DG does not own recordings of *all* the Schubert songs.  I
haven't seen this particular set, but it's undoubtedly a reissue of the
Fischer-Dieskau recordings that he made for DG in 1969 or thereabouts,
with Gerald Moore as pianist.  Very extensive but not complete.  His
omission of the "women's songs" was later made good by Gundula Janowitz
(I forget the pianist) for DG; conceivably these have been added in to
this CD reissue?  But even if they have, plenty of songs are left out.

>And does anyone have anything
>to say about the Hyperion collection?  I've wondered whether it's
>worth purchasing.

If you like Schubert songs, it is DEFINITELY worth getting.  Volume 15
is just out, the quality remains high, and it looks like they're going
to finish on schedule in 1997 (a Schubert anniversary year), with
between 30 and 35 volumes.

For those who don't know about this, pianist Graham Johnson is its
mastermind.  His idea was that whereas a huge "complete box" of Schubert
songs can be daunting and rarely sampled, a series of single CDs, each
featuring one singer and presenting a recital with a unified theme,
makes a more manageable meal and allows one to become truly familiar
with the songs.  A consistent delight in the series is Johnson's liner
notes -- a fat booklet in each box, containing texts and translations,
interwoven with voluminous and insightful commentary.  The performances
have been very good too; often outstanding, once or twice only ok,
but never less than acceptable and usually much better.  Johnson's
pianism is reliably wonderful.

Let me see if I can recall who sings in each volume and what the theme
is.

1:  Janet Baker [poems by Goethe and Schiller]
2:  Stephen Varcoe [water imagery]
3:  Ann Murray [poems by Schubert's friends]
4:  Philip Langridge [poems by Schubert's friends]
5:  Elizabeth Connell [nature]
6:  Anthony Rolfe Johnson [night]
7:  Elly Ameling [songs written in 1815]
8:  Sarah Walker [night]
9:  Arleen Auger [theater, and female characters dramatized]
10: Martyn Hill [songs of 1815]
11: Brigitte Fassbaender [death and immortality]
12: Adrian Thompson [songs of Schubert's youth]
13: Marie McLaughlin [Gretchen (Faust) and Ellen (Lady of the Lake)]
14: Thomas Hampson [ancient Greece]
15: Margaret Price [night]

Announced for release in the near future are
16: Thomas Allen
17: Lucia Popp

The solo-recital format is occasionally varied.  Small choruses join
Rolfe Johnson and Walker for solo-with-chorus songs, secondary singers
join Thompson for some of the early oddities, and Hampson and McLaughin
each make a guest appearance on the other's disc.

Hyperion's Schubert series is one of the most exciting recorded projects
going.  I recommend it.

Jon Alan Conrad