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Track(s) taken from CDJ33051/3

Komm!

First line:
Du schönes Fischermädchen
composer
author of text

Gerald Finley (baritone), Graham Johnson (piano)
Recording details: October 2004
All Saints' Church, East Finchley, London, United Kingdom
Produced by Mark Brown
Engineered by Julian Millard
Release date: October 2005
Total duration: 1 minutes 9 seconds
 

Reviews

‘This enterprising, often revelatory set should intrigue and delight anyone interested in the development of the Lied’ (Gramophone)

‘Since making music with friends was Schubert's whole raison d'etre, this 3-CD box is an inspired idea … led by the soprano Susan Gritton, the performances are pure A-list’ (The Independent)

‘Anyone who loves lieder will find here a rich, diverse, and delightful offering. There isn't a bad song among the 81 songs by 40 composers who wrote during Schubert's lifetime, and there's a lot of fine music here by well-known and also practically unknown composers and poets. The singing is consistently excellent… anyone interested in this genre will find here a broad-ranging and generous collection’ (American Record Guide)

‘If 81 songs are too many to mention individually, sufficient variety exists and enough songs are receiving a first recording for this set to be indispensable for anyone interested in the genre’ (International Record Review)

‘Graham Johnson once again demonstrates that he has few peers today in his combined function as scholar-musician’ (Fanfare, USA)
Meyerbeer played no personal part in Schubert’s life, but his star was in the ascendant in Austria at the same time as Schubert’s life was drawing to a close. In 1826, at the same concert where Stephan Franz’s violin variations were played there was an excerpt from Meyerbeer’s seventh opera Margharita’Anjou. In early September, during his stay in Styria, Schubert heard a performance of Meyerbeer’s tenth opera, Il croacitto in Egitto. The original libretto had been reworked into German by Josef Kupelwieser who was the librettist of Schubert’s opera Fierrabras, so Schubert probably attended the performance at the Graz county theatre out of loyalty to his colleague. According to Anselm Hüttenbrenner (who had not seen Schubert for a long time) Schubert was unimpressed with Meyerbeer’s opera. It is interesting that as late as 1854 Schubert’s erstwhile Rosamunde collaborator, Helmina von Chézy, was publishing adulatory poems about both Meyerbeer and Mendelssohn.

This song was written and published in Paris in 1837 as Guide au bord ta nacelle. In this bilingual edition there is a second verse added to Heine’s poem by Émile Deschamps (and a corresponding German translation) which is omitted here. Meyerbeer also made settings of Dass sie hier gewesen (Schubert’s D775) and Metastasio’s L’incanto degli occhi (Schubert’s D902 No 1). There is little indication that Meyerbeer knew Schubert’s Schwanengesang when he wrote this, but he knew the song’s poet, Heine, whom Schubert had never met.

comparative Schubert listening:
Das Fischermädchen No 10 of Schwanengesang, D957. August 1828

from notes by Graham Johnson © 2006

Other albums featuring this work

Schubert: The Complete Songs
CDS44201/4040CDs Boxed set + book (at a special price) — Download only
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