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 ...
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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...
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