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Track(s) taken from CDA67392

Liebst du um Schönheit

composer
author of text

Stephan Genz (baritone), Roger Vignoles (piano)
Recording details: January 2003
Tonstudio Teije van Geest, Sandhausen, Germany
Release date: October 2004
Total duration: 2 minutes 7 seconds

Cover artwork: The Tomb of Böcklin (1901/2, detail). Ferdinand Keller (1842-1922)
Staatliche Kunsthalle, Karlsruhe / akg-images
 

Other recordings available for download

Dame Sarah Connolly (mezzo-soprano), Joseph Middleton (piano)

Reviews

‘This disc shows Stephan Genz entering his fourth decade with all the light suppleness and ardour of his youthful recordings, but now with darker colours and firmer bass ballast folding into his baritone. His intuitive musical partnership with Roger Vignoles is as sentient and perceptive as ever; and together they uncover the dark, sensual mysteries of the late-Rommantic response to the natural world’ (BBC Music Magazine)

‘A rich sonorous eloquence from Genz, while Vignoles musters a full range of orchestral colours. Piano accompaniment lends these works a more personal, intimate feel, turning this generous disc into a pensive, rewarding journey through the many complex moods of Mahler's inner life’ (The Observer)

‘Even in this golden age of Lieder singers, Stephan Genz has few rivals for easeful beauty of tone and acuteness of insight’ (The Daily Telegraph)

‘Stephen Genz is an excellent light baritone whose timbre reminds me sometimes of one of his teachers, Dietrich Fischer-Diskau, and whose interpretations are like Fischer-Diskau's earlier ones,before he began to over-interpret … highly recommended’ (American Record Guide)

‘This is an extremely enjoyable disc, which casts a lot of light on even those songs of Mahler which were written to be accompanied orchestrally … Genz is singing a cycle to which he is utterly suited, and the effect is magical’ (International Record Review)

‘Stephen Genz relies on subtle shading, verbal refinement and a lightness of touch to interpret a generous selection of Mahlerian masterpieces’ (Classic FM Magazine)

‘What surpassingly magnificent music this is, and what a superbly intelligent display of Western high-art at its most poignant from Genz and Vignoles. I just can't stop playing the disc. Endless pleasure, endless sorrow, endless beauty’ (Fanfare, USA)
Friedrich Rückert had been briefly set by Schubert in three songs, one of which, Dass sie hier gewesen, looks forward in its adventurous harmonic colouring to the perfumed atmosphere of Mahler and Strauss. He was also a favourite poet of Robert and Clara Schumann—Clara’s setting of Liebst du um Schönheit stands up well to comparison with Mahler’s more well-known version. In Mahler’s case, the refined sensitivity of Rückert’s poetry, with its intricate, rather contrived rhyme schemes derived from Persian and Turkish models, chimed with a newly refined vein in his own composition.

from notes by Roger Vignoles © 2004

Friedrich Rückert avait déjà été brièvement mis en musique par Schubert dans trois lieder, dont l’un, Dass sie hier gewesen, regarde, avec sa couleur harmonique osée, vers l’atmosphère parfumée de Mahler et de Strauss. Ce même Rückert fut l’un des poètes favoris de Robert et Clara Schumann—l’une des mises en musique de cette dernière, Liebst du um Schönheit, soutient d’ailleurs la comparaison avec la version mahlérienne, plus connue. La sensibilité subtile de la poésie rückertienne, avec ses combinaisons de rimes complexes, plutôt forcées, dérivées de modèles persans et turcs, s’accorda avec la veine nouvellement raffinée des œuvres de Mahler.

extrait des notes rédigées par Roger Vignoles © 2004
Français: Hypérion

Schubert hatte sich in drei Liedern kurz mit Friedrich Rückert befaßt, und eines dieser Lieder, Dass sie hier gewesen, nimmt mit seinen abenteuerlichen harmonischen Farben die duftende Atmosphäre von Mahler und Strauss vorweg. Rückert war auch einer von Robert und Clara Schumanns bevorzugten Dichtern—Claras Vertonung von Liebst du um Schönheit braucht den Vergleich mit der bekannteren Version Mahlers nicht zu scheuen. Was Mahler anging, so stand die vornehme Sensibilität von Rückerts Poesie, mit ihren komplizierten, etwas gekünstelten, von türkischen und persischen Vorbildern abgeleiteten Reimschemata, mit einer neuerlich feinsinnigen Strömung in seinen eigenen Kompositionen im Einklang.

aus dem Begleittext von Roger Vignoles © 2004
Deutsch: Bettina Reinke-Welsh

Other albums featuring this work

Mahler: Rückert-Lieder
Studio Master: SIGCD741Download onlyStudio Master FLAC & ALAC downloads available
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