COMPOSERS: Schubert
LABELS: DG Double
WORKS: Lieder
PERFORMER: Gundula Janowitz (soprano)Irwin Gage (piano)
CATALOGUE NO: 437 943-2 ADD (1978)
This double-disc bargain will appeal most to those who like their Schubert darkly dramatic. Janowitz, so powerful and at home in Romantic opera and Strauss, appears oddly uneasy in Schubert. Several of these lieder lack subtle nuance; her piano is too often forced. Gage’s playing, always refined, can be just a fraction dogged. The later ballads, and parts of the second disc (eg the ‘Szene der Delphine’) come over most convincingly. Regrettably, texts are not included. Roderic Dunnett
Schubert: Lieder
This double-disc bargain will appeal most to those who like their Schubert darkly dramatic. Janowitz, so powerful and at home in Romantic opera and Strauss, appears oddly uneasy in Schubert. Several of these lieder lack subtle nuance; her piano is too often forced. Gage’s playing, always refined, can be just a fraction dogged. The later ballads, and parts of the second disc (eg the ‘Szene der Delphine’) come over most convincingly. Regrettably, texts are not included. Roderic Dunnett
Our rating
4
Published: January 20, 2012 at 2:33 pm