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

 

 

cover image

alternatively
CD: MDT AmazonUK AmazonUS
Sound Samples & Downloads

Aribert REIMANN (b. 1936)
Song Cycles after Schubert, Schumann, Brahms & Mendelssohn

Franz Peter SCHUBERT (1797-1828)
Mignon (arr. Aribert Reimann) [13:14]
Johannes BRAHMS (1833-1897)
5 Ophelia-Lieder (arr. Reimann) [4:32]
Robert SCHUMANN (1810-1856)
6 Gesänge, Op. 107 (arr. Reimann) [9:14]
Felix MENDELSSOHN-BARTHOLDY (1809-1847)
Oder soll es Tod bedeuten? (arr. Reimann) [23:39]
Juliane Banse (soprano); Cherubini Quartet (Christoph Poppen, Ulf Wallin (violins); Hariolf Schlichtig (viola); Christoph Richter (cello))
rec. Schloss Elmau, Oberbayern 23-25 August 1997
TUDOR 7063 [51:21]

Experience Classicsonline


Interesting to review this disc so soon after Wolfgang Holzmair's performance of Reimann's Nachtstück (on poems by Eichendorff) at the Wigmore Hall (see concert review). Interesting, also, to re-experience the Nachtstück in the light of Holzmair's Philips recording (464 991-2). His recording is more involving than at the Wigmore - where it was actually the highlight of a disappointing evening. It is worth noting that the present disc was touched on by PGW some time ago.

The piece here entitled Mignon (after Goethe) carries with it the description “compiled and transcribed for soprano and string quartet”. Reimann's typically wide-ranging imagination takes some of the lesser-known settings by Schubert of this text along with the more familiar - and includes the five-part male choir version D656 of 1819. The D310 vies with fragments from another early rescension. The effect is far from the patchwork that the foregoing description might imply. Juliane Banse's faultless soprano delivers all the radiance this music demands, and Reimann's transcription, and his play with his inherited materials, is masterly. Banse's slurs, too, are astonishingly clean, almost in the early music-inspired manner. The Cherubini Quartet matches her radiance, thus doing this music full justice. It is as if Reimann has set out to illuminate this music from within and, as such, he almost transcends the limits implied by the descriptor, “transcriber”.

The Brahms Ophelia-Lieder, lasting in total a mere four minutes, are given subdued treatment. The openness of “Auf morgen ist Sankt Valentins Tag” is a shot of light in Reimann's hands; he subsequently highlights the darkness of the ensuing “Sie treugen Ihn auf der Bahre bloss”, whilst the fragile longing of the final “Und kommt er nicht mehr zurück?” is expertly caught.

The Op. 107 songs are magnificent examples of late Schumann - the first makes reference to Ophelia, thus linking to the Brahms just heard. Here Reimann is more interventionist, especially in the string effects of the second song, “Der Fensterscheibe”. Interesting also to hear the high strings against Banse in “Der Gärtner”, although “Im Wald” alone sounds falsely tampered with and makes one wish for the voice/piano original.

The Mendelssohn takes the last line of the song “In dem Mondschein um Walde” as its title. Reimann wrote six Intermezzi, linking the songs which also act on his own reflections about the songs themselves. The juxtaposition of styles is both startling and rewarding. Mendelssohn and Reimann's Webern-influenced mode of expression are poles apart in some ways. Reimann takes ten songs, most of which are little known - the greatest exception being “Auf Flügeln des Gesanges”, here with an almost Schoenbergian use of strings. The care with which Banse phrases throughout is remarkable, as is her ability to attune to both the worlds of Mendelssohn and of Reimann.

The recording is full and forthright - perhaps a touch more intimacy would have been appropriate. Yet this remains a vitally important issue, and one which adds much to our appreciation of the magnificent songs while in the process encouraging us to re-examine them. The disc requires much input on the part of the listener - a refreshing change in the current climate of convenience food, Classic-FM samplers.

Colin Clarke



 

 

 

 

 


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.