MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             

Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

REVIEW
Plain text for smartphones & printers


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Chandos recordings
All Chandos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 


Support us financially by purchasing this disc from

Hugo WOLF (1860 – 1903)
Mörike-Lieder
see track listing below review
Werner Güra (tenor), Jan Schultsz (piano)
rec. November-December 2004, Reitstadel, Neumarkt Oberpfalz
No texts and no liner notes
HARMONIA MUNDI HMA 1951882 [64:19]
 
There are no really bad songs in Hugo Wolf’s oeuvre; maybe one or two that are less interesting than the others, but that is very much a matter of personal taste. Where do we find his very best songs? Again a matter of taste, I suppose. Eichendorff-Lieder, Goethe-Lieder, Italienisches Liederbuch, 3 Gedichte von Michelangelo – I love all of these but forced to make a choice I think it must be the Mörike-Lieder. On the present disc we find 23 of the best of these andthose who only need a superb sample of Wolf’s songs need look no further.
 
This does not imply that this disc contains the very best versions of these particular songs ever set down, but they are very good and they are now reissued at a very affordable price.
 
Werner Güra, who was 40 when these songs were recorded, has had an important career in several German opera houses, in particular in Mozart and Rossini roles, he has appeared in oratorios and the Bach passions. As a Lieder singer he is also in great demand. He has a fairly light voice, a typical Mozart voice if you like. It is beautiful, slightly reedy in tone, rhythmically alert, excellent when it comes to enunciation, tasteful and expressive. All this can be heard in his lovely reading of Fußreise (tr. 2). That he also has steel in his voice is evident from the powerful eruptions in Er ist’s (tr. 3) and even more so in Der Feuerreiter (tr. 21), one of the most awe-inspiring songs in the whole Lieder repertoire. No one can quite beat Helge Rosvaenge’s stupendous recording from the 1930s, but Güra is very good even so.
 
He may be more at home in the more poetic songs. Im Frühling (tr. 4) is both poetic and impassioned and he is so sensitive in Zitronenfalter im April (tr. 8), an old favourite of mine. Der Gärtner (tr. 9) is full of nuance and, as in Nimmersatte Liebe (tr. 13) he is so flexible to the shifts of mood. One must also admire his half-voice and the beautiful legato in Peregrina II (tr. 18) and Lebe wohl (tr. 19). The evergreen Verborgenheit (tr. 20) are enchantingly sung. The humorous Storchenbotschaft (tr. 22) is light and expressive and is followed by Abschied (tr. 23) with its hilarious waltz postlude. The piano accompaniments are splendid and the recorded sound ditto. So why hesitate? Well, the lack of any documentation – apart from the track-list – is a drawback. On-line it is possible to find texts and translations, for instance here: http://www.recmusic.org/lieder/w/wolf.html
 
Göran Forsling

Track Listing

1. Gebet [2:50]
2. Fußreise [2:31]
3. Er ist’s [1:21]
4. Im Frühling [3:56]
5. Auf ein altes Bild [2:38]
6. Der Genesene an die Hoffnung [4:36]
7. Auf einer Wanderung [3:14]
8. Zitronenfalter im April [1:53]
9. Der Gärtner [1:30]
10. Begegnung [1:18]
11. Der Tambour [2:40]
12. Jägerlied [0:53]
13. Nimmersatte Liebe [2:35]
14. In der Frühe [2:38]
15. Denk’ es, o Seele [3:33]
16. An die Geliebte [3:33]
17. Peregrina I [1:51]
18. Peregrina II [3:28]
19. Lebe wohl [2:14]
20. Verborgenheit [2:49]
21. Der Feuerreiter [5:20]
22. Storchenbotschaft [3:43]
23. Abschied [3:04]