Ihr Auge, S310 Second version (Liszt) - from CDA67934 - Hyperion Records

Reviews

‘Finding a wide palette of colours within her naturally warm mezzo, Kirchschlager is in her element … this recital should open many ears to the richness and variety of Liszt's songs. Recording and presentation are first-class’ (Gramophone)

‘The more one hears of Liszt's songs, the more one wonders why they have been so rarely performed … Kirchschlager's rich, resonant mezzo finds beauties everywhere on this disc, from heights of drama to intimacies of reflection, and at every turn Drake is with her’ (BBC Music Magazine)

‘This is a fascinating and rewarding recital, which explores Liszt’s oeuvre from the 1840s to 1870s … the grainy and distinctive timbre of Kirchschlager’s vivid mezzo-soprano is well suited to this highly charged emotional world, and Drake’s playing is eloquently impassioned without sinking to fortissimo ham’ (The Daily Telegraph)

‘Hyperion's retrospective of Liszt's complete songs [is] one of the most important recording projects of recent years … Kirchschlager is exquisite and intensely dramatic by turns … Drake is outstanding throughout’ (The Guardian)

‘The high expectations roused by Volume 1 of Hyperion's compete Liszt songs … are more than met with this second instalment … the programme is excellently chosen to showcase Liszt's versatility as a master of Romantic song … Kirchschlager's extraordinary dramatic gifts are displayed in the two longest songs here, Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher and Die drei Zigeuner … rich new levels of meaning are revealed … Kirchschlager and Drake deliver performances that set the beauty and inventiveness of each song in high relief … not to be missed’ (International Record Review)

Ihr Auge (‘Nimm einen Strahl der Sonne’) is a brief, passionate outcry of a song. The combined illumination of Nature’s brightest lights—the sun, the evening star, the glowing lava from Mount Etna—cannot equal the light of the beloved’s eyes, which can warm and illuminate but also destroy the lover’s soul. The gasping urgency in the piano figuration at the beginning, the brief enharmonic shift to distinguish ‘inner life’ from external Nature, and an ‘ending’ that sounds remarkably un-final: these are recurring Lisztian hallmarks. This much passion, Liszt tells us, has an afterlife beyond the final bar.

Ihr Auge («Nimm einen Strahl der Sonne») est un bref cri fervent. L’intensité cumulée des lumières les plus éclatantes de la Nature—le soleil, l’étoile du berger, la lave rougeoyante de l’Etna—ne peut égaler la lumière des yeux de l’aimée, capable de réchauffer, d’illuminer, mais aussi de détruire l’âme de l’amant. L’urgence haletante de la figuration pianistique, au début, la courte transition enharmonique pour distinguer «la vie intérieure» de la Nature extérieure, et une conclusion qui semble remarquablement tout sauf décisive, sont autant de griffes lisztiennes récurrentes. Cette grande passion a, nous dit Liszt, une vie après la dernière mesure.

Ihr Auge („Nimm einen Strahl der Sonne“) ist ein kurzer leidenschaftlicher Ausruf. Die geballte strahlendste Leuchtkraft in der Natur—der Sonne, des Abendsterns, der glühenden Ätna-Lava—erreicht nicht das Licht in den Augen der Geliebten, das die Seele des Geliebten erwärmen und erhellen, aber auch zerstören kann. Das atemlose Drängen in der Klavierfiguration am Anfang, der kurze enharmonische Wechsel, mit dem das innere Leben von der äußeren Natur abgesetzt wird, und ein Ende, das auffallend wenig nach Ende klingt: all dies sind wiederkehrende Eigenheiten von Liszt. Soviel Leidenschaft, will Liszt sagen, besteht auch über den letzten Takt hinaus.

Recording details: October 2011
Potton Hall, Dunwich, Suffolk, United Kingdom
Produced by Simon Kiln
Engineered by Arne Akselberg
Release date: July 2012
Total duration: 0 minutes 47 seconds

Cover artwork: Photograph of Angelika Kirchschlager. Sim Canetty-Clarke

Ihr Auge, S310 Second version

Angelika Kirchschlager (mezzo-soprano), Julius Drake (piano)

Reviews

Introduction