The cycle of Brahms songs appearing on Hyperion in the late 2010s and early 2020s is unique in its concept: the albums have a common accompanist, Graham Johnson, but different singers. Johnson chooses the programs, matches singers to them, and contributes detailed booklet notes (worth the CD price on their own). The songs on each volume are chronologically arranged. This ninth volume is an excellent example, featuring tenor Robin Tritschler with some duo parts from soprano Harriet Burns, the star of volume eight. Youthful ...
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The cycle of Brahms songs appearing on Hyperion in the late 2010s and early 2020s is unique in its concept: the albums have a common accompanist, Graham Johnson, but different singers. Johnson chooses the programs, matches singers to them, and contributes detailed booklet notes (worth the CD price on their own). The songs on each volume are chronologically arranged. This ninth volume is an excellent example, featuring tenor Robin Tritschler with some duo parts from soprano Harriet Burns, the star of volume eight. Youthful tenor Tritschler has a perfect voice for these songs, which eschew the deeper complexities of which Brahms was capable in the lied form in favor of limpid melody and direct, although not unsubtle, expression. Each album has one or more of the famous Brahms songs, and here it's Feldeinsamkeit, Op. 86, No. 2, intelligently paired with the related, and nearly contemporaneous, In Waldeinsamkeit, Op. 85, No. 6. Tritschler brings a joyous sense of wonder to these songs of the natural world....
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There are many kinds of songs to love, including the songs of Ronnie Spector (1943 -- January 12, 2022) who died during the time I was listening to this CD. I thought of her.
The scholar-pianist Graham Johnson and Hyperion Records have released series of the songs of Schubert, Schumann, Faure, and Strauss in addition to the recently completed ten CD series of the songs of Brahms.
The CDs in each series feature a different singer together with Johnson's extensive liner notes,which include texts and translations together with discussion of each song. This CD, the ninth in the series of the songs of Brahms, features the Irish tenor Robin Tritschler. Tritschler is in the early stages of a promising career as a recording artist and performer on the concert stage, singing opera and concert music in addition to lieder. I loved his singing of these mostly sad, simple, and emotive songs. This Tritschler/Johnson collaboration dates from October 2018 and was recorded in All Saints' Church, London.
Brahms' songs constitute the most personal, intimate part of his output. They likely echo his own romantic hopes and frustrations. The songs have beautiful melodic lines together with piano parts that range from the simple to the deceptively simple to the complex. Brahms was in love with what he took for folk song, with medievalism, and with nature.
The songs on the CD are grouped in loose chronological order. Even though this is the ninth in a series of ten, the CD includes a mix of relatively well-known songs together with some that are lesser-known. It is a moving recital, best listened to a few songs at a time.
The songs I most enjoyed include "To a Violet", op 49 no 2 setting a text by Ludwig Holty, a song of unrequited love. This song is among the group that the American composer Lowell Liebermann transcribed for solo piano in his 2004 composition "Four Etudes on Songs of Brahms", opus 88, It is a work I hope to learn to play. Both the Brahms song and the Liebermann transcription are intimate and beautiful.
One of Brahms' most beloved songs is the duet "Vain Serenade", op. 84 no. 4, to a traditional text that Johnson says is the first Brahms' song he was asked to accompany. The song shows an ardent, would-be suitor summarily dismissed by his young lady. Soprano Harriet Burns is featured on this song and on four other duets on the CD.
Other songs I enjoyed include "Sunday", op. 47 no 5, to a traditional text in which a young man dreams of his lady setting out from home to attend church. The meditative, intense, "Alone in the Fields", op 86 no. 2, is one of Brahms' most frequently performed songs and sets a poem by Herman Allmers. The final work with an opus number on this CD is the simple but enigmatic "May catkins", op. 107 no 4 to a text by Detlev von Lilencron. It is a tale of old, lost love that gets a detailed discussion by Johnson in his notes. The program concludes with seven songs from Brahms' late collection of German Folksongs, WoO33. They are endearing and a joy.
This CD is a lovely way to hear Brahms, either by itself or together with the other CDs in the series. I was reminded that the beauty of song and of feeling is easily broad enough to encompass both Johannes Brahms and Ronnie Spector.
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