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


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

 

 

alternatively
AmazonUK AmazonUS

Franz SCHUBERT (1797-1828)
The Song Cycles
Die Schöne Müllerin [63:00]
Schwanengesang [54:00]
Winterreise [74:00]
Stationen eines Interpreten: A Documentary on Hermann Prey [37:00]
Hermann Prey (baritone)
Leonard Hokanson, Helmut Deutsch (piano)
Film director: Franz Kabelka
rec. Die Schöne Müllerin: 17-23 February 1986, ORF Studio, Vienna; Schwanengesang, 1-5 November 1984, ORF Studio, Vienna; Winterreise, 18-21 November 1986, Schechacher Hof, Vienna
Sound format: PCM stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1
Picture format: 4:3
Picture standard: NTSC
Subtitles: EN, FR, ES
Region code: 0
UNITEL CLASSICA 700208 [252:00]

Experience Classicsonline


Schubert’s lieder is one of my favourite parts of the classical repertory, and I have to confess that I’m an inveterate fan of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau singing these works. I have dozens of his recordings, from the early EMI recitals to the “complete” DG set, as well as many of his various versions of Winterreise and the other song-cycles, together with many of the more recently released radio performances.

But a few years ago, by way of Deutsche Grammophon’s download site, I picked up a set of Hermann Prey’s recordings on the cheap. Not being familiar with his works - he had never come into my radar - I was impressed by how wonderful his voice was and how rich his technique. Unfortunately, while he recorded a fair amount of lieder, his catalogue is nothing like that of Fischer-Dieskau; while he recorded the three song-cycles, which appear on this DVD set, he recorded few other lieder by Schubert.

Die Schöne Müllerin starts off this two-disc set, with Hermann Prey and pianist Leonard Hokanson on a set made up to look like a bourgeois music room. With furniture along the walls, windows looking out on painted backdrops, and some “sun” streaming in, it is meant to look as though the two just got together for some amiable music-making after a good Viennese lunch.

For Schwanengesang, the set is the same, but it is evening. While Prey and Hokanson are well lit, the rest of the set is very dark at times. For Winterreise, the setting is similar, but with more normal studio lighting. It’s daytime again, and one can glimpse frost on the windows and snow on a tree outside.

Prey is natural and seems as though he’s singing for a few friends; he embraces the camera, whose many tight shots keep this recording intimate. Though these close-ups can be odd; during Ihr Bild, in Schwanengesang, all but the first few seconds of the song feature a close-up of Prey, which zooms in slowly during the first minutes to maintain nothing but his head on screen; this technique is used with other songs too. While his smiles sometimes seem forced, it is clear that he truly loves and understands this music, and he is able to express this in the subtle manner in which he approaches it. Yet he can be very strong and forceful, such as when singing the powerful Der Doppelgänger, in Schwanengesang. Here, Prey shows the dark side of this music, and does so with violent expressiveness.

While Prey seems very comfortable, Hokanson is one of those pianists who looks as though he’s working hard when he plays. He has sheet music for the songs on his piano as he plays, which is a bit disturbing. I understand that musicians may need this in concert, but you’d think that for a recording like this they’d be able to play from memory. During Winterreise, Helmut Deutsch seems more absorbed in the music than Hokanson, hunched over his piano, though he, too, needs to have the score on his piano.

The sound is both good and mediocre. The first piano notes in Die Schöne Müllerin show that the piano didn’t record well; it booms a bit, sounds muddy when alone, and is, at times, a bit too loud compared with Prey’s voice. It’s better in the stereo mix than in the faux-5.1 version. The piano sound is better for Winterreise. Prey, however, sounds excellent; his voice comes through clearly and the smooth character of his singing is evident with each word. At times, though, the sound is very strange. In Der Atlas, the second song of Schwanengesang, Prey’s voice suddenly sounds strident, as though there were a problem with the recording. It is much louder than the previous song in that cycle (and the songs in Die Schöne Müllerin), and sounds as though he was miked differently. The rest of the songs sound normal, though occasionally, in the louder sections, the levels go into the red.

So what about the performances? Prey is pretty darned good in these song-cycles. I’ve heard many singers tackle them, and Prey is one of those who sings these works without exaggeration or misplaced mannerisms. He may seem a bit wooden when singing, but this betrays a certain stability in his approach. While he can be forceful when necessary, and lyrical when the music calls for it, he seems to find the right balance for most of the songs. This is a wonderful set, with all three of the cycles recorded in similar circumstances and close together, though it’s a shame they weren’t recorded a decade earlier, when Prey was truly in his prime.

For those unfamiliar with Hermann Prey, this is a wonderful way to get to know this great singer. For those who know his work, this set is a must-have. Prey shows here that he can rival the best.

Kirk McElhearn 

 

 

 

 

 

 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools






Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.