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Track(s) taken from CDJ33051/3

Suleika

First line:
Ach, um deine feuchten Schwingen
composer
author of text
attributed to and adapted by Goethe
author of text

Susan Gritton (soprano), 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: 2 minutes 46 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)
Despite the re-issue of Randhartinger’s lieder in modern editions we have to guess the dates of their composition. It is significant that this song is cast in B flat major, a strong link with Schubert’s setting of the same text. There is no doubt that Randhartinger, on his best form, was a highly skilled composer. This sumptuous music, still framed by a certain classical rigour, suggests the 1830s when Schubert’s style was still a living memory, rather than the 1840s when Viennese song-composing dipped in quality while yielding to perfumed sentimentality—a shift that would be termed ‘Victorian’ in the context of English musical history. The languid, ornamented tendrils of the accompaniment suggest something suitably oriental for Goethe’s West-Östlicher Divan—an exoticism in which Schubert was a pioneer. The connection with Jeannette Bürde's Der Berghirt, is clear: both of Schubert’s Suleika songs were written for Anna Milder Hauptmann to whom Randhartinger might also have sent this song. Neither this singer nor her composers knew that the real author of the words was Marianne von Willemer, Goethe’s ‘Suleika’ in real life.

comparative Schubert listening:
Suleika II D717. March (?) 1821 (possibly December 1824)

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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