The Hyperion Schubert Edition 1 / Dame Janet Baker, Graham Johnson

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
This disc launches one of the great projects in the history of recording: the complete songs of Schubert, the world's greatest songwriter. Hyperion was lucky that they caught Janet Baker--a renowned Schubert singer--just at the end of her distinguished career, but still in fine voice. Graham Johnson, pianist and guiding spirit behind the whole project, has given her excellent material to work with: songs to texts by Schiller and Goethe. An auspicious beginning to a magnificent voyage of discovery. --David Hurwitz

The Hyperion Schubert Edition 1 / Dame Janet Baker, Graham Johnson, Music, Franz Schubert, Janet Baker, Graham Johnson, Classical, Classical Composers, Classical Music, Romantic Music for Voice and Keyboard, Vocal

Average customer rating:

The Mack Daddy of Musical Series Begin here...

A worthy start to a very special series.

The Hyperion Schubert Edition 1 / Dame Janet Baker, Graham Johnson
Franz Schubert , Janet Baker , and Graham Johnson
Manufacturer: Hyperion UK
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

All Works by Schubert | Schubert, Franz | ( S ) | Featured Composers, A-Z | Classical | Styles | Music
Chamber Music | Forms & Genres | Romantic (c.1820-1910) | Historical Periods | Classical | Styles | Music
Vocal & Song | Romantic (c.1820-1910) | Historical Periods | Classical | Styles | Music
General | Classical | Styles | Music
Classical | Imports | Stores | Music
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The Hyperion Schubert Edition 7 / Elly Ameling, Graham Johsnon

ASIN: B000002ZEV
Release Date: 1993-09-01

Tracks:

The Youth By The Brook
Thelka: A Phantom Voice
Shepherd's Lament
Nearness Of The Beloved
Calm At Sea
Amalia
Anticipation
Wayfarer's Night Song
The Fisherman
First Loss
Delight In Melancholy
To The Moon
The Secret
Song
The Fugitive
To Spring
The Alpine Huntsman
The Pilgrim
Longing

Amazon.com

This disc launches one of the great projects in the history of recording: the complete songs of Schubert, the world's greatest songwriter. Hyperion was lucky that they caught Janet Baker--a renowned Schubert singer--just at the end of her distinguished career, but still in fine voice. Graham Johnson, pianist and guiding spirit behind the whole project, has given her excellent material to work with: songs to texts by Schiller and Goethe. An auspicious beginning to a magnificent voyage of discovery. --David Hurwitz

Customer Reviews:

The Mack Daddy of Musical Series Begin here..........2006-06-27

'The Hyperion Schubert Edition, Complete Songs, Volume 1' sung by mezzo-soprano Dame Janet Baker, accompanied by pianist, Graham Johnson is, to my ear, much more satisfying than the several 'selected' Schubert collections by contemporary divas such as Renee Fleming and Anne Sophie von Otter.

Since I am a rank amateur in music appreciation, I give you my visceral impressions, and some attempt at why I think these may work for you. This recording is comprised of no more than 19 out of the over 600 Lieder composed by Franz Schubert, but they are joined by the fact that they are all based on poems by two of Germany's greatest poets (up to Schubert's time), Goethe and Schiller. Thus, there is a great uniformity in both the music and the lyrics. As someone who own's over half of this 32 CD series, I recommend this as a sample for anyone who simply wishes to see if they are interested. It may not have as much resonance as the last recordings which do Schubert's famous song cycles such as 'Die Schoene Mullerin', but they are very, very pretty, and Dame Janet certainly does them justice.

A worthy start to a very special series........2001-08-02

The editorial comment reflects the strong recommendation given to this CD in the "Penguin Guide to Compact Discs". I add my own recommendation also, not only for this CD but for the whole project which it initiates, the plan to provide a truly complete survey of Schubert's song output.

The accompanist and moving spirit throughout is Graham Johnson. In his notes, he mentions inheriting a ten-volume Schubert edition, full of pencil markings, from legendary accompanist Gerald Moore. The older accompanist, collectors will remember, made a memorable series of Schubert lieder recordings with Dame Janet Baker. Well here is Dame Janet in her mid-fifties but still in vocal splendour, together with the younger accompanist, recorded in 1987.

One of the principles of this huge recording project is to match singers with songs. Anyone privileged to attend a recital by Dame Janet, a tall statuesque figure, will once again enjoy the experience of sharing music that seems to suit her perfectly. In "An den Mond", a song requiring a vocal range of almost two octaves, Dame Janet's lower register is used with remarkable dramatic power.

Tracks:

Der liebliche stern
Am See
Mein! (From Die schone Mullerin)
Auflosung
Lied eines schifers An Die Dioskuren
An Silvia
An die Sonne
Die Unterscheidung
Die Allmacht
Am Strome
An Emma
Als ich sie erroten sah
Sehnsucht
Lob der Tranen
Elkonig
Lied
Der Jungling an der Quelle
Blondel zu Marien
Trost im Tranen
Ruckweg
Alinde
Standchen
Romanze
Seufzer
An den Fruhling
Am Bach im Fruhling

Customer Reviews:

Beware Mislabeling!.......2007-04-20

I have no quibble with the excellent reviews accorded this COMPILATION OF TRACKS FROM THE FIRST 27 ALBUMS of the Hyperion Schubert Edition. HOWEVER, the labeling here is misleading. THIS IS NOT #34 of the Schubert Edition!!! I purchased it thinking it was, and then discovered it's just a teaser compilation to purchase the set. Now I have duplication.

Whoever tags items has a great responsibility to consumers to do so very carefully. I got my copy from someone listing off this site. Because the original is mislabeled, so are all the new/used offerings linked to this site.

Amazon employees, please fix the problem and remove the desgnation "34" before the next unsuspecting consumer buys something she doesn't want.

Discovering the Schubert Songs.......2005-07-02

Franz Schubert (1779 -- 1828) composed more than 600 songs beginning from the age of about 14 until days before his death. He virtually invented the art song, and he remains the greatest composer of song in any form. Schubert had astonishing lyrical gifts and the best of his songs flow with an irrestible spontaneity. If he had composed nothing else, his output of songs would be among the treasures of music and would entitle him to the highest rank as a composer. Brahms, who was also a master of the art song, once said that there was something to be learned from each of Schubert's efforts in this form. I have loved Schubert's songs for many years and know of no other music that so readily melts my heart.

There are many ways to approach Schubert's songs and a multitude of choices on CD of both historical and contemporary recordings. The CD under discussion "A Voyage of Discovery" bids fair to be the best place to start for a newcomer. This CD is part of a monumental project, consisting of 37 CDs, to record Schubert's entire song output on Hyperion, a British label. The project was conceived by pianist Graham Johnson who is the accompanist throughout the series. Each CD in the Hyperion series comes with an extensive booklet including the texts of the songs and great detail about the poetry, Schubert's life, and the music. Each CD is also performed by one of the great singers of our day, beautifully accompanied by Johnson. But each of these CDs, alas, is expensive. And all but devoted listeners might be intimidated by 37 CDs of song.

Thus, this sampler is valuable because it is culled from the first 27 CDs in the series and includes selections by 24 outstanding singers such as Peter Schrier, Lelicity Lott, Ian Bostridge, Brigette Fassbaender, Elly Ameling, and many more. The CD was obviously prepared to encourage the listener to explore the Hyperion series further, buy it also serves as an outstanding introduction to Schubert. The songs on this CD are among Schubert's masterworks, and each is performed by a different artist. Thus the listener receives a rare opportunity to hear an introductory selection of Schubert performed by many singers in different styles. (Most samplers feature the work of only a single artist or two.) And the disk is much less expensive than its companions in the Hyperion series.

The works flow and sing, and the best way to approach this CD is to sit back, listen and enjoy. The CD encourages this approach because there is little in the way of program notes and song texts are not provided -- not even the names of the poets. But the music is lyrical and of immediate appeal. My favorites pieces here include Peter Schreier singing "Der Liebiche Stern"; Dame Felicity Lott singing "Am See"; Ian Bostridge's inspired rendition of "Mein!" from Schubert's song-cycle "Die Schone Mullerein"; John Mark Ainsley's rendition of Shakspeare's "An Silvia", Adrian Thompson's "Trost im Tranen", and Elly Ameling singing " An den Fruhling". I also enjoyed Arleen Auger's singing of a Schubert "Romanze" which features a part for the clarinet and Sarah Walker singing a version of "Standchen" with an accompaning chorus. But the entire CD is moving, lovely music.

This CD is a joy in itself for those listeners who can be satisfied with a basic exposure to the Schubert songs. But it is also a good place to begin for listeners who want to hear more of Schubert -- either on the Hyperion series or on the many other CDs of the songs that are readily available to be explored and enjoyed.

Robin Friedman

FOUR-AND-TWENTY SINGERS.......2004-05-24

How the numbers have been done is a little obscure. 26 songs, sung by 24 singers, have been selected from the first 27 records in the omnibus set of Schubert Lieder from Hyperion. Bostridge features twice, and I imagine there will be no complaints about that. The other artist to appear twice is Sarah Walker, and that is more of a mixed blessing, for several reasons. The songs are not exclusively solo works. The `Staendchen' here is neither the familiar Rellstab number from the Schwanengesang nor the Shakespeare `Hark hark the lark' but a piece with solo and male chorus, and the Romance sung by Arleen Auger has a clarinet obbligato played by Thea King. The piano accompaniment is provided throughout by Graham Johnson.

A few minor quibbles apart, this is my idea of a perfectly heavenly record, outstandingly well engineered. The selection is a judicious mix of familiar and unfamiliar. Who Is Sylvia is here, as are the Erlking and Mein from the Mill songs. Special favourites of my own are Der Allmacht and Mayrhofer's Aufloesung, both superb opportunities for a big voice, and the works cover all of Schubert's short career with Deutsch numbers ranging from 113 to 920. I think I would have liked Elizabeth Connell to hit Der Allmacht just a little harder. At the start I thought that Johnson might have been using a little too much pedal, but when I felt that most in the Sailor's Song to the Dioscuri he immediately delighted me with a lively and bouncing accompaniment in the next number Who Is Sylvia. My one real reservation concerns Erlkoenig, sung by Sarah Walker. For me, this is just not a song for a woman. Three of the four parts - father, child and the Erlking himself -- are explicitly male, and I imagine one takes the narrator to be male as well. Even more, for the one and only time on the entire disc I'm not happy with the performers' concept of the song. The tempo is too fast for my liking - the father is galloping rapidly, but any suggestion of panic ought to be reserved for the end. I also like a clean drumming sound in the piano right hand with a good strong accent on each of the four beats, clearly suggesting the hoofbeats of the horse, and too much pedal spoils it for me. What is also lost is the wonderful way the tension should relax without loss of pace before the Erlking's first song, and there is no sinister quality to the Erlking's tone as there needs to be. Fischer-Dieskau and Moore are not supplanted in my affections here.

And that's about it by way of criticisms. A disc featuring Schreier, Lott, Bostridge, Fassbaender, Allen, Baker, Mathis, Rolfe Johnson, Auger, Ameling and Varcoe to name but some can be expected to be a bit of a celebration, and that's exactly what it is. The liner booklet is even more than usually inadequate with no texts. It does not tot up the playing time either, but for me this recital was over almost as soon as it began, so much did it keep me in raptures. Strongly recommended.

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