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Track(s) taken from CDJ33121

Sieben Lieder, Op 48

composer
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
No 1: Hamburg, 1859-62; No 2: 1853; Nos 3-5: 1854; No 6: 1859; No 7: May 1867, Bonn; published in November 1868

Angelika Kirchschlager (mezzo-soprano), Graham Johnson (piano)
Recording details: August 2008
All Saints' Church, East Finchley, London, United Kingdom
Produced by Mark Brown
Engineered by Julian Millard
Release date: June 2010
Total duration: 2 minutes 41 seconds

Cover artwork: Photograph by Benjamin Ealovega.
 

Reviews

‘The first volume of what promises, on the evidence of this disc, to be yet another absorbing and invaluable encyclopaedia of a songmaster's life and work. Graham Johnson, once again, is both mastermind and pianist, and, as ever, his accompanying notes and essays are as witty and richly allusive as his playing … this recital is beautifully shaped—from the way in which the little opening diptych of songs leads to Angelika Kirchschlager's disarmingly intimate performance of Von ewiger Liebe to the irresistible quartet of Deutsche Volkslieder at the end’ (BBC Music Magazine)

‘Angelika Kirchschlager and Graham Johnson's interpretations make these a thrilling experience’ (American Record Guide)

‘Johnson has that rare ability to combine a breathtaking depth of scholarship with great immediacy in performance … A very fine imagination is at play, doing things with tone, colour and dynamics that are utterly beguiling. Johnson is, as you might expect, immaculate’ (The Guardian)

‘This selection keeps springing pleasant surprises. Kirchschlager's articulation can be veiled, but she always sings with feeling, and Graham Johnson expertly judges the quirky piano accompaniments. His notes, as usual, are awesomely detailed’ (The Times)

‘Kirchslager is a perfect choice to begin the series, as Janet Baker had been for Schubert a decade ago. Angelika's mezzo voice is mellifluous and comforting to bring into your sitting room. Attentive to the meanings of every line, but not overly dramatic, she sustains attention through the whole recital easily. Again and again, guided by Johnson in words and at the keyboard, there are moments of heightened appreciation of Brahms, a consummate lieder composer’ (MusicalPointers.co.uk)
The seven songs of Op 48 are rarely heard as a complete opus on the concert platform. At first glance the sequence appears to be a rag-bag—songs by different poets composed at different times in Brahms’s career, and seemingly put together in a bundle simply to facilitate publication. There may be some truth in this—by the time this opus was issued in 1868 the composer was sufficiently famous for the appearance of his songs in print to be awaited with impatience by singers, and there did not have to be any clever incentive to be built into the planning of the work in order to encourage sales. And yet there are two unifying themes in this collection that are buried beneath the surface and which may, or may not, have been the result of deliberate planning. The first of these is homage to the past, both musical and poetic: the opus opens with a work (Der Gang zum Liebchen) that summons up the pianistic spirit of Chopin and closes with one that pays deep and deliberate tribute to Franz Schubert (Herbstgefühl). There are two numbers (Der Überläufer and Vergangen ist mir Glück und Heil) which delve into the German musical world of the sixteenth century, and two songs taken from that classic collection of folk-poetry Des Knaben Wunderhorn. In later years Brahms would issue volumes of folksong settings of his own. The single Goethe setting Trost in Tränen is written as an impeccable strophic song in the old style, a tribute to yet another old German musical tradition, and this too owes something to Brahms’s veneration of Schubert.

The other possible unifying theme is to do with a reading of the texts where everything is to do with fear of betrayal (Nos 1 and 2), suffering as a result of a doomed love affair (Nos 3, 4, and 5), or an overwhelming sense of permanent exclusion and icy isolation (Nos 5, 6 and 7). Whether the composer deliberately planned this collection to capture these moods, or whether he simply responded more readily and more regularly to poetry of this kind, is a moot point.

from notes by Graham Johnson © 2010

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