Last February appeared at DG Schubert Revisited by Matthias Goerne, an album which featured prominently in our annual chart and which was based on lieder orchestrations by Alexander Schmalcz. We then vilified “the collective amnesia of the musical world” with regard to the interesting repertoire of orchestrated lieder, recalling that “Liszt and Berlioz orchestrated Erlkönig, while Reger, Mottl and Weingartner worked on a whole series that ‘Hermann Prey recorded in 1977 and 1978’. Here is a disc which happily revives this repertoire by mixing orchestration sources like never before, since we find as much Brahms (for Geheimes) and Offenbach (for Stand) than Schmalcz (Abendstern, which opens the program). The tone is less “late 19th centurye century” than with Prey, because Appl and Jockel favor and balance two orchestrators: Anton Webern and Max Reger. Appl, who previously recorded Schubert with piano for Alpha, has a supple baritone voice, lighter than Goerne. Interesting and useful disc.
To watch on video