Pentatone rolled out the red carpet for German soprano Hanna-Elisabeth Müller. After a first album of melodies and lieder with piano released just before the pandemic, the Dutch label offered him a Strauss program with the Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR) Symphony Orchestra in Cologne under the direction of veteran Christoph Eschenbach.
Posted at 5:30 p.m.
The 37-year-old singer, originally from Mannheim (one of the cradles of German classicism), is a sought-after Mozartian and Straussian. She is particularly familiar with the role of Sophie du rose knight and that of Zdenka d’arabella.
For his recording titled Sinnbild (Symbol), the soprano has chosen the essential but formidable Four last lieder by the Bavarian composer, but also an assortment of more or less well-known lieder. We thus hear the familiar Morgan and Standchenbut also excerpts from rarer later cycles.
Verdict? The singer undoubtedly has the voice to sing Richard Strauss. Everything seems easy. The voice is remarkably supple and flourishes both in the treble and in the lower registers. Some may deplore an occasional lack of roundness, but this nevertheless has the advantage of giving an undeniable personality to the voice.
But, there is a but. All very well done, but a bit too cautious. Not that emotion is totally absent. But after getting goosebumps listening to the Four last lieder with a Jessy Norman vibrating with all her pores or tasting the incomparable presence of Gundula Janowitz and Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, we are left a little unsatisfied.
Ditto with the prosaic orchestral accompaniment of Christoph Eschenbach. Compare only the flat first bars of his “Im Abendrot” with those of the Janowitz/Karajan version, sips of infinite love. There is a world between the two. It is no different with Morgen, directed with deplorable disinterest. In short, the sauce hardly takes.
Symphonic music
Sinnbild: Strauss Songs
Hanna-Elisabeth Müller, Christoph Eschenbach and the WDR Symphony Orchestra
Pentatone, 2022