Graham Johnson dubbed Vol. 18 of his Schubert edition "Schubert and the Strophic Song," and while that is certainly true (nearly all the songs on this disc are strophic settings), it is not the reason to hear the disc. And although Johnson engaged the wonderfully expressive tenor Peter Schreier as the vocalist on the disc, and although Johnson's accompaniment is subtle and supportive as always and his liner notes are exhaustive and entertaining, none of these are the reasons to hear the disc either. The reason to hear the ...
Read More
Graham Johnson dubbed Vol. 18 of his Schubert edition "Schubert and the Strophic Song," and while that is certainly true (nearly all the songs on this disc are strophic settings), it is not the reason to hear the disc. And although Johnson engaged the wonderfully expressive tenor Peter Schreier as the vocalist on the disc, and although Johnson's accompaniment is subtle and supportive as always and his liner notes are exhaustive and entertaining, none of these are the reasons to hear the disc either. The reason to hear the disc is the almost-song cycle Auf dem wildes Wegen setting of poetry by Ernst Schulze. Schulze was one of the madder of the mad German Romantic poets, and the poems from his Poetische Tagebuch trace the course of one of his love affairs. But so mad was Schulze -- the girl and her parents forbade the poet from having any contact with her on pain of imprisonment -- that the poems are less about the course of his love affair than about the disintegration of his mind. When Schubert set...
Read Less
Portions of content provided by Rovi Corporation. © 2024 Rovi Corporation.