The Songs of Johannes Brahms, Vol. 2 (2011)

Christine Schafer Performs Brahms Lieder

The pianist and scholar of lieder Graham Johnson is following-up his recordings of the complete songs of Schubert. Schumann, Faure, and Strauss with another ambitious project: recording the complete lieder of Johannes Brahms. The recordings are on the Hyperion label. The first volume of the series featured mezzo-soprano Angelika Kirschlager, BRAHMS: The Complete Songs, vol. 1. In this new CD the renowned German soprano Christine Schafer sings 33 Brahms songs accompanied by Johnson at the piano. Schafer has recorded a broad range of music, from opera to lieder. Among other things, she has recorded Bach cantatas, Schoenberg, and Schubert's Winterreise. She sings the Brahms songs on this CD with intimacy and passion and beautifully piercing tone in her upper register. The recording dates from 2010.

Brahms' lieder are less well-known than those of Schubert and Schumann and may not be as familiar to music lovers as his orchestral and chamber music. The songs are the most intimate part of Brahms' output. They are often sad and intense and make great use of folk material. This new series is valuable not only for the quality of the performances but also for the opportunity it offers to explore Brahms' songs in depth. Each volume of the series is accompanied by an invaluable discussion by Johnson giving text and translation of each song together with a detailed musical and textual analysis. The liner notes allow the listener to explore the songs in depth. They do not, of course, substitute for direct involvement with the music, but they add a great deal. Listeners with a passion for song or for learning about Brahms's songs will love this CD.

The songs are arranged in roughly chronological order but Johnson's aim is to emphasize close listening to each small work rather than thinking in terms of cycles. With that said, there is a great deal of thematic grouping on this CD. The recording features a complete set of the six Brahms songs known as the "Madchenlieder". After Brahms' death, his publisher took these songs from collections and opus numbers that Brahms had published at varying times and compiled them into a set. The songs are all narrated by a young girl and each speaks of the vicissitudes of love. The cycle is a mix of art songs and settings of Paul Heyse together with a collection of folk material. The best-known song is "Madchenlied", set to a poem by Heyse in which a girl spins at her spinning wheel while lamenting her loneliness and lack of love. This song owes much to Schubert's "Gretchen at the Spinning Wheel" and features a similar form of piano accompaniment. Schafer and Johnson's performance of these six "maiden songs" is a rare treasure.

Another related group of songs on this CD consists of five settings of the poet George Frederich Daumer (1800 -- 1875), who is remembered today largely because Brahms liked his verses. The five Daumer poems in Brahms opus 57, all are written for a man and have as a theme love and rejection. The love expressed by the singer and by the music tends to be hopeless. I have heard Fischer-Dieskau's recording of this group of songs. The lieder have a unique intensity when sung by Schafer in a high soprano voice.

Besides these groups of songs, Schafer sings one of Brahms' longest and best-known lieder, "Regenlied", (Rain song) op. 59 no.3, together with its related sequel "Nachklang" (distant echo) both of which set poems by Brahms' Klaus Groth (1819 -- 1899). Regenlied is comparatively well-known because Brahms used the theme of the song in the finale of his G major violin sonata, opus 78. The song has a deeply nostalgic, sad theme, as the aging poet looks back to the sound of the falling rain to remember the innocence and hope of his childhood of long ago. Johnson's notes offer a particularly detailed account of this song which will reward reading. Other art songs on the CD include Brahms' setting of Goethe's Die Liebende screibt" (the beloved writes) op. 47, no. 5, a poem that Schubert also set. Brahms' song owes a great deal to Schubert. Brahms early song "As the cloud strays after the sun" op. 6 no. 5. which sings of absence from the beloved, is highly intense with a closely-wrought piano accompaniment.

This CD also includes six songs drawn from Brahms' late collection "Deutsche Volkslieder" (1894) which Brahms believed, largely mistakenly, was based on traditional folk material. This collection is frequently recorded as a unit. But Johnson has judiciously decided to divide its contents among the different CDs in the Hyperion series. The songs "Abschied" op 69 no. 3 and "Des Liebsten Schwur" (the lover's vow) op 69 no. 4 also show Brahms' deep interest in folk song.

This CD will probably have greatest appeal to listeners who already love lieder and have some familiarity with Brahms' songs. It offers a unique way of exploring these small intimate works with care and detail. I am looking forward to hearing the further volumes in this series.

Total Time: 75:37

Robin Friedman