26.7.11

Matthias Goerne + pianist (2005)


Live recording of a concert in London's Wigmore Hall with german baritone Matthias Goerne and piano played by Alfred Brendel.


Another recommendation of excellent "Gramophone" magazine - they were impressed enough to include "Die Taubenpost" in their best-of-the-month selection and his cheerful,little ditty was so pretty that I bought the whole album expecting more of the same - to my surprise,it turned out that this particular song has nothing to do with the rest of the album! Two song-cycles presented here (Beethoven and Schubert) are actually much more gloomy and depressing ," Die Taubenpost" was actually Schubert's last song for voice and piano and does not belong to any cycle,it is often performed only as encore.


I still have to turn my head around the whole phenomenon of Lieder songs,since I always find this kind of material very pretty in a small doses but exhausting when faced with gargantuan ask of listening too much of it. It is a combination of music and poetry therefore very,very artful and demands close attention of listener - just like reading the poetry,one has to be in a particular mood for it.No doubt Goerne is fascinating performer and his heroic baritone booms all over the place but I must admit I was more drawn to his accompanist who plays so pretty that piano becomes almost another voice in the room,reflecting every twist and turn of the poetry.


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