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Track(s) taken from CDD22010

Nähe des Geliebten, D162

First line:
Ich denke dein, wenn mir der Sonne Schimmer
composer
Second version; published in 1821 as Op 5 No 2
author of text

The Songmakers' Almanac, Anthony Rolfe Johnson (tenor), Graham Johnson (piano)
Recording details: November 1983
St Barnabas's Church, North Finchley, London, United Kingdom
Produced by Martin Compton
Engineered by Antony Howell
Release date: March 1997
Total duration: 3 minutes 12 seconds

Cover artwork: Party Games of the Schubertians (Gesellschaftspeilungen der Schubertianer). Leopold Kupelwieser
 

Other recordings available for download

Dame Janet Baker (mezzo-soprano), Graham Johnson (piano)

Reviews

‘Impossible to imagine anyone not deriving enormous pleasure from this collection’ (BBC Music Magazine)

‘Reviewers have long since run out of adjectives to describe Graham Johnson's superb complete Schubert song series for Hyerion. Now, for the Schubert centenary year, comes a re-release of a Schubertide which while not part of the series is certainly in the same spirit. "Back catalogue" at Hyperion means caskets of jewels rather than dusty shelves. There are so many matchless performances on this set that you could operate the player blindfold and pick a winner every time. All conjure up memories of superb evenings in the concert hall where this group could justifiably claim to have set a new standard for the presentation of song’ (The Singer)
This song is the twelfth of Schubert's long line of Goethe settings which began with Gretchen am Spinnrade in 1814 and continued with unabated enthusiasm in 1815. Nahe des Geliebten shows that the eighteen-year-old composer was brilliantly capable of choosing when to abandon his through-composed style, so perfect for Gretchen, and return to a strophic treatment of the text. The poem is a litany, and if the music were to vary from verse to verse, Goethe's depiction of a lover's constancy would have been undermined. The piano introduction (played only once) is a miracle: with each change of chord we perceive the opening of a loving heart, the unfolding realisation of deep devotion. The singer enters, the home key is reached, a promise is kept, and the power of imagination has surmounted the agony of separation.

from notes by Graham Johnson © 1988

Other albums featuring this work

Schubert: The Complete Songs
CDS44201/4040CDs Boxed set + book (at a special price) — Download only
Schubert: The Hyperion Schubert Edition, Vol. 1 - Janet Baker
CDJ33001Download only
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