COMPOSERS: Schubert,Schumann,Tchaikovsky & Liszt
LABELS: Classics for Pleasure
ALBUM TITLE: Collection: Margaret Price Sings Romantic Songs
WORKS: Frauenliebe und -leben
PERFORMER: Margaret Price (soprano), James Lockhart (piano)
CATALOGUE NO: CDCFP 4669 ADD (1971-74)
Evidence of Dame Margaret Price’s greatness as a lieder singer has rarely seemed clearer than in her exceptional account of Schubert’s ‘Shepherd on the Rock’ (1971), reissued here. Her fluidity of line and the subtlety and range of her interpretation are heartbreakingly beautiful and suffuse the piece with an epic quality. Augmented by Jack Brymer’s similarly virtuoso performance of the clarinet part, his uncompromising legato signalling the song’s innate tragedy, this overwhelming recording is one to treasure, and the disc is worth its cover price for these 12 minutes alone. The other ‘Romantic Songs’ brought together here include Schumann’s Frauenliebe und -leben (1974), glorious in its way but somehow less affecting than the version Price recorded last year, as well as some Liszt and Tchaikovsky romansi. Claire Wrathall
Schumann,Schubert, Tchaikovsky & Liszt
Evidence of Dame Margaret Price’s greatness as a lieder singer has rarely seemed clearer than in her exceptional account of Schubert’s ‘Shepherd on the Rock’ (1971), reissued here. Her fluidity of line and the subtlety and range of her interpretation are heartbreakingly beautiful and suffuse the piece with an epic quality. Augmented by Jack Brymer’s similarly virtuoso performance of the clarinet part, his uncompromising legato signalling the song’s innate tragedy, this overwhelming recording is one to treasure, and the disc is worth its cover price for these 12 minutes alone.
Our rating
5
Published: January 20, 2012 at 3:16 pm