Next Stop: Central Europe
CD: Christian Gerhaher, baritone, and Gerold Huber, pianist: Schubert: Abendbilder
It is immensely reassuring to report that the gentle invasion of lieder artists continues to make its way into concert halls and recording studios. In fact, the baritones alone make a formidable division, among them Thomas Quasthoff, Matthias Goerne, and Christian Gerhaher.
Gerhaher has proven a nice surprise and a worthy inclusion in the pantheon of lieder singers. If the name is unfamiliar to you, store it in your memory and set out to familiarize yourself with the voice that goes with it. This is a baritone who very much belongs in the lieder tradition.
Part of Gerhaher's training involved master classes with soprano Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and the baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, the latter being one of the 20th century's greatest interpreters of lieder. Not surprisingly, Gerhaher's CDs have included Schumann's Dichterliebe and a well-received version of Schubert's Winterreise -- a work Fischer-Dieskau recorded more than once!
Abendbilder ("Evening Images"), another collection of Schubert lieder, is a gorgeous CD. There are just two instruments, Huber's piano and Gerhaher's supple voice, each beauteous by itself, each complementing the other. The singer's smooth delivery and crisp diction are an asset to the material and a gift to the listener, and I'm sure that even if you don't understand German, you will have little problem responding to the emotional power of the music, with which Gerhaher is clearly at home. By turns confiding, ardent, and reflective, he makes this collection of songs yet another memorable journey.
Christian Gerhaher's not just a lieder artist, either; drag him away from the piano and you get recordings of Bach, Bartok, Haydn, Mahler, Weber and -- you just knew this was coming, didn't you? -- one of the most recent recordings of Carmina Burana, a work which at this point almost seems an initiation rite for up-and-coming baritones. But if Gerhaher is in demand for stagings of Wagnerian operas and recordings of Bach masses, I certainly hope he will never abandon the lieder repertoire, to which he offers so much.
In the meantime, we can gear up for his next stop in the DC. The Washington Vocal Arts Society 2007-2008 performance schedule has Gerhaher and Huber due to appear at the Embassy of Austria on October 11th of this year.
It is immensely reassuring to report that the gentle invasion of lieder artists continues to make its way into concert halls and recording studios. In fact, the baritones alone make a formidable division, among them Thomas Quasthoff, Matthias Goerne, and Christian Gerhaher.
Gerhaher has proven a nice surprise and a worthy inclusion in the pantheon of lieder singers. If the name is unfamiliar to you, store it in your memory and set out to familiarize yourself with the voice that goes with it. This is a baritone who very much belongs in the lieder tradition.
Part of Gerhaher's training involved master classes with soprano Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and the baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, the latter being one of the 20th century's greatest interpreters of lieder. Not surprisingly, Gerhaher's CDs have included Schumann's Dichterliebe and a well-received version of Schubert's Winterreise -- a work Fischer-Dieskau recorded more than once!
Abendbilder ("Evening Images"), another collection of Schubert lieder, is a gorgeous CD. There are just two instruments, Huber's piano and Gerhaher's supple voice, each beauteous by itself, each complementing the other. The singer's smooth delivery and crisp diction are an asset to the material and a gift to the listener, and I'm sure that even if you don't understand German, you will have little problem responding to the emotional power of the music, with which Gerhaher is clearly at home. By turns confiding, ardent, and reflective, he makes this collection of songs yet another memorable journey.Christian Gerhaher's not just a lieder artist, either; drag him away from the piano and you get recordings of Bach, Bartok, Haydn, Mahler, Weber and -- you just knew this was coming, didn't you? -- one of the most recent recordings of Carmina Burana, a work which at this point almost seems an initiation rite for up-and-coming baritones. But if Gerhaher is in demand for stagings of Wagnerian operas and recordings of Bach masses, I certainly hope he will never abandon the lieder repertoire, to which he offers so much.
In the meantime, we can gear up for his next stop in the DC. The Washington Vocal Arts Society 2007-2008 performance schedule has Gerhaher and Huber due to appear at the Embassy of Austria on October 11th of this year.
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