Liszt: The Complete Songs Volume 1

Liszt: The Complete Songs Volume 1 cover $30.00 Out of Stock
6+ weeks
add to cart

FRANZ LISZT
Liszt: The Complete Songs Volume 1
Matthew Polenzani (tenor) & Julius Drake (piano)

[ Hyperion / CD ]

Release Date: Wednesday 10 November 2010

This item is currently out of stock. It may take 6 or more weeks to obtain from when you place your order as this is a specialist product.

"This auspicious inauguration of the series whets the appetite for more." (International Record Review)

'This stupendous disc … Most of Liszt's songs are big statements, usually described as virtuoso. But as with so much of his music, their difficulty in performance is to be found in their emotional and expressive extremes. The challenges are more than met here, with Polenzani doing things in songs such as Der Fischerknabe or Pace Non Trovo that you never thought were possible for a human voice, while Drake's intensity is total and unswerving' (The Guardian)

'Polenzani remains an extraordinarily communicative Lieder singer, possessed of an agile and flexible voice of tremendous versatility. In the most intimate of these settings, as well as in the quasi-operatic ones, Polenzani and Drake create performances that are at once thoughtful, richly atmospheric and never less than compelling … This auspicious inauguration of the series whets the appetite for more' (International Record Review)

The start of another Hyperion Lieder series is always cause for celebration. In advance of his bicentenary in 2011, we turn to a composer whose songs, against the vast bulk of his compositions in larger genres, were considered insignificant for well over a century.

A collaborator with some of Europe's best singers, such as the great French tenor Adolphe Nourrit and the husband-wife duo of Feodor and Rosa von Milde (the first Elsa and Telramund in Wagner's Lohengrin), Liszt used song as a compositional laboratory in which to experiment with 'Zukunftsmusik', or 'music of the future', including some of his most finely wrought works. A cosmopolitan artist who traveled prodigiously during his years as a virtuoso performer from 1838 to 1847, he chose song texts written both by denizens of Mount Olympus (Goethe, Schiller, Heine, Hugo, Tennyson, Tolstoy, Petrarch) and amateurs, the latter often aristocrats from Liszt's glittering social circles. From their words he created songs that changed the very definition of the genre, that are a bridge to such later masters as Hugo Wolf, Sergei Rachmaninov and Richard Strauss.

This first volume in the series features the American tenor Matthew Polenzani who has been astounding Met opera audiences in recent years with his expressive and ardent performances. He is accompanied by the curator of the series and Hyperion regular, Julius Drake.

Tracks:

Kling leise, mein Lied, S301 First version
In Liebeslust, S318
Wie singt die Lerche schön, S312 Second version
Die stille Wasserrose, S321
Lieder aus Schillers Wilhelm Tell, S292 First version
Der Glückliche, S334 Wie glänzt nun die Welt im Abendstrahl
Angiolin dal biondo crin, S269 Third version
Tre Sonetti di Petrarca, S270 First version
Bist du, S277 Second version Mild wie ein Lufthauch im Mai
Es rauschen die Winde, S294 First version
Schwebe, schwebe, blaues Auge, S305 Second version
Im Rhein, im schönen Strome, S272 First version ossia