‘The outstanding light-lyric Mozartian of her generation’ wrote
The Sunday Times of her second recital disc. I made that disc
a Recording of the Month in September 2006. The review
is here.
Several years before that Rob Barnett lavished praise on her
debut album ‘Soul and Landscape’ with Swedish songs. Read that
review here.
I have reviewed a number of Mozart operas with her as well as
a recording of Haydn’s Die Schöpfung and I have never
been able to find anything negative to write about her singing.
‘The heir to Elisabeth Schwarzkopf?’ I jotted down on my pad
after just a couple of songs on this new disc. I immediately
corrected myself and added: ‘No, she is not a second
Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, she is the first Miah Persson and each
is unique.’ Both these singers had/have great voices, which
can be enjoyed for sheer beauty of tone and technical accomplishment.
Besides that they had/have the ability to make the songs and
arias they perform their own, invest the texts with meaning,
colour the tone to express a certain feeling, a certain mood.
To take an isolated example from the Mozart recital mentioned
above: Miah Persson is a typical Susanna or Zerlina or Pamina
and when I saw that she also was going to sing Come scoglio,
Fiordiligi’s aria, intended for a quite different voice type,
I thought she was on the wrong track – but she wasn’t. I wrote:
‘A natural Susanna, one wouldn’t believe her to be “big” enough
for Fiordiligi, but actually she adopts a fuller rounder voice
for this taxing aria. She colours it with broad brush strokes,
having enough power even in the lowest register.’
This ability is essential for a Lieder singer as well, even
more so in fact. In several of Robert Schumann’s best known
songs she comes into direct comparison with all the great Lieder
singers of the past. I was tempted to take down a handful of
established favourites from my shelves but resisted that and
just listened with open mind and open ears – and was fully satisfied
with what I heard. In the accompanying booklet Schumann’s tempo
markings and other instructions to the interpreter are printed
for each song and Miah Persson follow these to perfection. Widmung,
is marked Innig, lebhaft (Sincerely, lively) and that
is exactly what I hear. Lied der Braut I is marked Sehr
innig and I hear even more sincerity than in Widmung.
The third of the Maria Stuart songs, An die Königin Elisabeth
is marked Leidenschaftlich (Impassioned) and Miah Persson’s
voice radiates passion – while retaining the beauty of tone
and perfect control. These five songs, composed late in Schumann’s
life are not permeated by the melodic richness of the marvellous
songs he created during 1840. They are rather prosaic, even
ascetic, but there is a certain fascination about them and the
setting of the ill-fated Queen’s own words – if they are her
own words, which is a moot point. In any case they have been
translated into German. They are not very frequently recorded
– I have barely a handful of recordings – but of those I have
heard Miah Persson’s reading is the one that goes deepest.
The biggest challenge is no doubt Frauenliebe und –leben.
It seems that this has become mezzo-soprano territory and
there are superb recordings with Christa Ludwig, Janet Baker
and Brigitte Fassbaender. Their darker voices more easily conjure
up the image of an elderly woman reminiscing about her youth.
Elisabeth Schumann recorded the cycle piecemeal late in her
career, her voice still glittering, but there is no doubt that
it is a woman no longer young. My first record of the cycle
was with Irmgard Seefried, who in the early 1960s had lost her
youthful timbre and could pass for elderly, though she was still
in her mid-forties. Miah Persson is still young and sounds young
and in her reading the songs are no flashbacks but represent
readings from the young woman’s diary where the ink has just
dried. The joy, the happiness but also the tears, the pain and
despair: ‘The world is empty / I have loved and lived, I am
/ not alive any more.’ All these feelings are depicted with
deep involvement. I was very satisfied with Sibylla Rubens’
recording of the cycle that I reviewed a couple of years ago,
finding it youthful, rather simple and straightforward. Miah
Persson is more heart-on-the-sleeve, while retaining full control
of her feelings. Her reading now joins those versions I mentioned
earlier in this paragraph.
What makes this disc doubly interesting is the inclusion of
seven songs by Clara Schumann. They have been recorded before,
several times, but rarely sung with such beauty of tone. These
are all early songs and quite simple. Later she developed to
a fully-fledged Lieder composer with song line and accompaniment
more organically woven together. Here the accompaniments are
basically discreet and uninteresting but there is no denying
the melodic inspiration. Ich stand in dunklen Träumen
and Warum willst du and’re fragen are real gems. Liebst
du um Schönheit is also a song to return to, though it is
impossible not to compare it to Mahler’s setting of the same
poem.
Joseph Breinl’s accompaniments are fully up to the quality of
the singing. The recording is excellent and there are good liner
notes. BIS still includes the sung texts with translations,
when most other companies provide a link to the internet for
download.
This disc confirms that Miah Persson is not only an outstanding
Mozartean but also an outstanding Lieder singer as well.
Göran Forsling
Track-listing
Robert SCHUMANN (1810 – 1856)
from Myrthen, Op. 25 (1840)
1. Widmung [2:03]
2. Der Nussbaum [3:01]
3. Die Lotusblume [1:44]
4. Lied der Suleika [2:29]
5. Lied der Braut No. 1 [2:28]
6. Lied der Braut No. 2 [1:14]
Clara SCHUMANN (1819 – 1896)
from 6 Lieder, Op. 13
7. Ich stand in dunklen Träumen (1840) [2:11]
8. Liebeszauber (1842) [1:53]
9. Ich hab’ in deinem Auge (1843) [1:53]
10. Lorelei (1843) [2:10]
Robert SCHUMANN
Gedichte der Königin Maria Stuart, Op. 135 (1852) [8:34]
11. Abschied von Frankreich [1:34]
12. Nach der Geburt ihres Sohnes [1:27]
13. An die Königin Elisabeth [1:26]
14. Abschied von der Welt [2:26]
15. Gebet [1:25]
16. Volkliedchen, Op. 51 No. 2 (1840) [1:02]
17. Der Himmel hat eine Träne geweint, Op. 37 No.
1 (1840) [1:45]
Clara SCHUMANN
3 Lieder, Op. 12 (1841) [6:47]
18. Er ist gekommen in Sturm und Regen [2:14]
19. Warum willst du and’re fragen [2:10]
20. Liebst du um Schönheit [2:09]
Robert SCHUMANN
Frauenliebe und –Leben, Op. 42 (1840) [20:35]
21. Seit ich ihn gesehen [2:15]
22. Er, der Herrlichste von allen [2:45]
23. Ich kann’s nicht fassen, nicht glauben [1:43]
24. Du Ring an meinem Finger [2:36]
25. Helft mir, ihr Schwestern [1:42]
26. Süsser Freund, du blickest [3:55]
27. An meinem Herzen, an meiner Brust [1:19]
28. Nun hast du mir den ersten Schmerz getan [3:54]
Miah Persson (soprano), Joseph Breinl (piano) 
[61:26] 