Schumann - Scenes from Goethe's Faust – Terfel, Matilla, Bonney, Abbado, BPO

 

Release Date: February 28, 1995 Label: Sony Number of discs: 2 Composer: Robert Schumann Performer: Terfel, Matilla, Bonney, Abbado, BPO cd info/ buy

Review:

Schumann spent more than 10 years to compose this striking work: Early 1840's he wrote the final chorus on last scenes in Goethe's Faust (now Part 3). Following this he composed Part 1, which dealt with Gretchen's prayer and crime from Faust's Erster Teil. In 1850, he restarted the composition, then Faust's Zweiter Teil on Faust's death (now Part 2): in which Schumann succeeded to set in music Faust's most famous words 'Verweile doch, du bist so schön!' (Pause the time, you are so beautiful). Just before his last illness Schumann completed this by writing the overture (1853). This is a vastly encompassing great music. Abbado's account is centered around Bryn Terfel as the star, and his Faust is as good as you'd expect form a singer who succeeds so well in Schumann's lieder. The supporting cast is equally starry. Orchestra and chorus are beyond reproach, and Sony's live concert recording is as good as a studio job. Enjoy Terfel's charismatic turn and let this somewhat elusive score settle in.

 

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Robert Schumann - Szenen aus Goethes Faust - Harnoncourt, Concertgebouw Orchestra

Release Date: October 13, 2009 Label: RCOC Records Number of discs: 2 Composer: Robert Schumann Performer: Harnoncourt, Concertgebouw Orchestra cd info/ buy

Review:

Nicolaus Harnoncourt's acclaimed 2008 performances of Schumann's rarely heard masterpiece Szenen aus Goethes Faust with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra were recorded live and edited for this exciting new release.  Harnoncourt's long association with the orchestra includes impressive opera productions and a great number of symphony concerts, including works by Haydn, Mozart, Schubert and Dvorak. Much of the repertoire Harnoncourt conducted with the Concertgebouw has been recorded and received many awards. Harnoncourt was appointed honorary guest conductor in 2002.

 

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Schumann - Das Paradies un die Peri – Gardiner, Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique

 

Release Date: May 26, 1999 Label: Archiv Number of discs: 2 Composer: Robert Schumann Performer: Gardiner, Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique  cd info/ buy

Review:

This lovely, unjustly neglected work should have become part of the mainstream repertoire long ago. Based on a Persian legend retold by poet Thomas Moore, the story is an endearing mixture of Western and Eastern religion. Setting a Christian vision of Heaven in Allah's garden, it tells of a supplicant tainted not by guilt but by inheritance, who must be cleansed by compassion and undaunted personal effort to be admitted to Paradise. The music is basically lyrical, tender, and serene but encompasses the depths and heights of intensity, lamentation, devotion, ecstasy, and triumph. A succession of vintage Schumann songs, sometimes bursting into operatic arias, is held together by often highly dramatic accompanied tenor recitatives and by long passages melding the solo voices with chorus and orchestra; the instruments evoke images of sun, moon, flowers, water, even the clash of war, refuting Schumann's supposed inability to orchestrate. The singing by both chorus and soloists is beyond praise; the orchestra is wonderfully transparent but often too subdued, evidently by interpretive choice. Of the two short pieces, the second is more beguiling for its mysterious, shimmering atmosphere. --Edith Eisler

 

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