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Track(s) taken from CDA67392

Zu Strassburg auf der Schanz

composer
No 1 of Book III of Lieder und Gesänge 'aus der Jugendzeit'
author of text
Des Knaben Wunderhorn

Stephan Genz (baritone), Roger Vignoles (piano)
Recording details: January 2003
Tonstudio Teije van Geest, Sandhausen, Germany
Release date: October 2004
Total duration: 3 minutes 27 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 Janet Baker (mezzo-soprano), Geoffrey Parsons (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)
In Zu Strassburg auf der Schanz a young soldier finds himself on the way to the scaffold or the firing-squad for an unidentified crime. Here his crime is desertion, or at least going absent without leave, and the muffled drums and tight military rhythms that represent his captivity are in eloquent contrast to the freedom inherent in the alphorn, whose nostalgic call had caused him to desert his post in the first place. (Mahler directs the introduction to be played Wie eine Schalmei – ‘like a shawm’.)

from notes by Roger Vignoles © 2004

Dans Zu Strassburg auf der Schanz un jeune soldat se retrouve en route pour l’échafaud ou le peloton d’exécution, pour un crime non identifié. Il s’est, en l’occurrence, rendu coupable de désertion ou, du moins, d’absence sans permission, et les tambours étouffés, ainsi que les rythmes militaires serrés, symbole de sa captivité, contrastent éloquemment avec la liberté inhérente au cor des Alpes, dont l’appel nostalgique lui avait d’abord fait déserter son poste. (Mahler précise que l’introduction doit être jouée Wie eine Schalmei – «comme un chalumeau».)

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

In Zu Strassburg auf der Schanz ein junger Soldat für eine nicht näher ausgewiesene Straftat auf dem Weg zum Schafott oder vor ein Exekutionskommando befindet. In diesem Lied hat er Fahnenflucht begangen, oder sich zumindest ohne Erlaubnis von der Truppe entfernt, und die für seine Gefangenschaft stehenden gedämpften Trommeln und strengen militärischen Rhythmen bilden einen beredten Kontrast zu der dem Alphorn innewohnenden Freiheit, dessen nostalgischer Ruf ihn überhaupt erst dazu gebracht hatte, seinen Posten zu verlassen. (Mahler weist an, die Einleitung Wie eine Schalmei zu spielen.)

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

Other albums featuring this work

Mahler: Songs of Youth
CDH55160
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