Wandrers Nachtlied I, D224 (Schubert) - from CDA68010 - Hyperion Records

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Reviews

‘Florian Boesch is the kind of baritone who, once heard, makes you want to hear him in any and all repertoire appropriate to his voice. A more alluringly rich voice than Christian Gerhaher’s is hard to imagine until hearing Boesch, who has a greater capacity for soft singing, maintaining an interpretatively interesting tone even in pianissimos … Boesch isn’t the sort of singer who tells you what to think or feel in this music. He lays it out with hugely attractive (and protracted) clarity and then lets you enter the music a fuller participant’ (Gramophone)

‘Boesch's singing is faultless: he's in fine voice and marvellously alert to every verbal nuance, without ever fracturing the line for the sake of the text. Vignoles, playing some of Schubert's most taxing accompaniments, tirelessly matches his every emotional shift. Very fine’ (The Guardian)» More

‘Florian Boesch and Roger Vignoles are two of the best performers of Lieder in our time … Boesch sings with the gentle sadness which pervades most of the songs that follow, his rich, true baritone voice reflective rather than assertive, the words all the more moving for the restraint with which they are delivered … this fine disc, pervaded with sadness though it is, has a great deal to offer those who love Schubert’s songs. There is an excellent booklet note by Richard Wigmore, and his own very good translations’ (International Record Review)» More

‘The Romantic outsider fated or choosing to live beyond the bounds of society is the main theme of this striking collection. Boesch, who recently released a powerfully convincing Schöne Müllerin cycle, has an ideal voice, at once dark and dazzling, and his accompanist —except that Schubert's rich, inventive piano parts are so much more than accompaniments—is perfect’ (The Sunday Times)» More

Introduction
English

Schubert set this poem on the same day as Der Fischer and Erster Verlust. It is daunting that after writing Wanderers Nachtlied he did not congratulate himself and take the rest of the day off. Most composers have spent a lifetime trying in vain to achieve such concentration in their music, for this song is in every way a distillation, the very essence of the Lied.

The poem was written at the beginning of Goethe's stay in Weimar (where he was to remain for most of his life), and in the early stages of his relationship with the aristocrat Charlotte von Stein who was to help the young firebrand change into a. courtier and statesman. It was Charlotte (the dedicatee of this poem) who made Goethe realise that a lifetime of Sturm und Drang was a ridiculous prospect; a man who had been forever on the move now needed to settle down. With unerring genius the young Schubert of 1815 has reflected in music the classical gravity of the words, and by repeating the last two lines has added musical ardour to the poem's entreaty without disturbing its essential poise.

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Recording details: November 2012
All Saints' Church, East Finchley, London, United Kingdom
Produced by Mark Brown
Engineered by David Hinitt
Release date: February 2014
Total duration: 1 minutes 43 seconds

Cover artwork: The Wanderer Above the Sea of Mist (1818). Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840)