Graham Johnson's Schubert edition covers all of Schubert's secular vocal compositions with piano accompaniment. However, this volume of the Schubert edition slips in a little Schubert pseudo-sacred music: a hymn to the Almighty, a hymn to the Unending, a pagan lamentation, a pantheistic hymn to the evening and another pantheistic hymn to the stars, three settings of the Psalms (one of which is Schubert's only setting of Hebrew), and a faux-Old Testament oratorio in the style of Handel. In other words, this volume has ...
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Graham Johnson's Schubert edition covers all of Schubert's secular vocal compositions with piano accompaniment. However, this volume of the Schubert edition slips in a little Schubert pseudo-sacred music: a hymn to the Almighty, a hymn to the Unending, a pagan lamentation, a pantheistic hymn to the evening and another pantheistic hymn to the stars, three settings of the Psalms (one of which is Schubert's only setting of Hebrew), and a faux-Old Testament oratorio in the style of Handel. In other words, this volume has everything it needs to succeed as sacred music except for one thing: soprano Christine Brewer. Brewer is a full-throated, deep-chested singer -- a sort of art-song Ethel Merman -- and her interpretations of her songs in this volume are just the other side of sensual and just this side of sexy. But she is still compelling: any singer who can't belt out Die Allmacht (D. 872A) and can't punch out Dem Unendlichen (D. 291) doesn't stand a chance against Schubert's stentorian vocal writing, And...
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