Graham Johnson's Schubert edition was grandly, even grandiosely, ambitious: to record every song Schubert ever composed with the best singers available. If it were going to succeed, it needed to start at the top with a volume of some of his most cherished songs sung by one of his best-loved interpreters. Johnson started at the top: for Vol. 1, he engaged Janet Baker to sing a collection of Schubert's settings of Schiller and Goethe. When this volume was released in 1987, Baker was just a bit past her peak as a singer and ...
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Graham Johnson's Schubert edition was grandly, even grandiosely, ambitious: to record every song Schubert ever composed with the best singers available. If it were going to succeed, it needed to start at the top with a volume of some of his most cherished songs sung by one of his best-loved interpreters. Johnson started at the top: for Vol. 1, he engaged Janet Baker to sing a collection of Schubert's settings of Schiller and Goethe. When this volume was released in 1987, Baker was just a bit past her peak as a singer and there is a slight sense of strain for some of her high notes and she occasionally shifts in register. But even Baker a bit past her peak is still just about as good as it gets. Baker's rich, full tone, her impeccable diction, her almost effortless technique, her dazzling breath control, and most of all her profound understanding of Schubert's songs all make her performance on this disc as a great as the best ever recorded. In the well-known songs like Der Jüngling am Bach (D. 30), An...
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Add this copy of Schubert: The Complete Songs, Vol. 1 to cart. $7.39, very good condition, Sold by Movie Surplus rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Mobile, AL, UNITED STATES, published 1993 by Hyperion.
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Franz Schubert. Very Good. Used-Very Good Condition. Case and disc(s) is in great condition with no significant scratches or marks. Includes original artwork and liner notes when applicable.
Add this copy of The Hyperion Schubert Edition 1 / Dame Janet Baker, to cart. $11.50, very good condition, Sold by StockandTrade rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Portland, OR, UNITED STATES, published 1993 by Hyperion UK.
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Add this copy of Schubert: The Complete Songs, Vol. 1 to cart. $11.00, like new condition, Sold by isbnbooks rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Eugene, OR, UNITED STATES, published 1988 by Hyperion.
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Fine in very good packaging. Originally released: 1988. Hyperion Schubert Edition, #1, 1987, CD with original case and 24 page insert, CD near fine, no owner's mark
Schubert's songs are some of the most beautiful music ever composed. The Hyperion Schubert Edition constitutes an outstanding way to explore Schubert's more than 600 songs in depth.
In 1987, Dame Janet Baker sang 19 Schubert songs accompanied by Graham Johnson in the first volume of the Hyperion Schubert Edition. It proved an auspicious beginning. Baker (b. 1933) was nearly at the end of a fabulous career. She had retired from the opera stage in 1982 and would give her last lieder recital in 1989. As her career wound down, still in beautiful form, she began the Hyperion Schubert series which would come to include 37 CDs and conclude in 1997, the 200th anniversary of the composer's birth. The series would become monumental and would feature CD recitals of Schubert songs by many great singers of the time.
The scholar-pianist Graham Johnson conceived the series. He designed each program and prepared the extensive liner notes which themselves add a great deal to the enjoyment of Schubert. He also is the pianist on each CD. In this, the first CD, his notes include an opening essay on the background of the Schubert songs. Johnson stresses how most of the over 600 songs remain largely unknown and have much to offer the lover of song when artfully presented and performed by a gifted singer. The goal of the series was to offer such performances for those wanting to know Schubert.
Dame Baker's performance is beautiful in itself and captures the goal of the series in microcosm. She performs songs by the two poets Schubert set most often: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 -- 1832) (eight songs) and Friedrich von Schiller (1759-1805) (eleven songs). Although Schubert set these poets in many of his beloved songs, most of the songs on this CD are lesser-known and from early in Schubert's life. Dame Baker's voice and feeling bring Schubert's melodies to life for moving listening.
One of the songs, "Anticipation", D. 159, setting Schiller, is a lengthy, rambling ballad of over 13 minutes held together by Baker's singing. The remaining 18 songs are short. The recital begins with what may be Schubert's first song, the lovely, flowing "The Youth by the Brook", D. 30, to a text by Schiller. Some of the highlights of the Schiller songs include "Amalia", D195, the "Lied", D.284, "To Spring", D.587, and "Longing" D.636, which concludes the CD.
Schubert set more Goethe than any other poet even though the the great man snubbed Schubert more than once. The Goethe settings on this CD include "Calm at Sea" D.216, the "Wayfarer's Night Song", D.224, "The Fisherman", D.225, "First Loss" D.226, and "To the Moon" D. 296.
I enjoy simply listening to the songs and their flow. But hearing the songs with the texts, with their translations by Richard Wigmore, and Johnson's detailed notes enhances listening.
The Hyperion Schubert Edition will always be a treasured resource for those who love Schubert. Dame Janet Baker's opening CD in the series is a beautiful tribute to this great composer of song.
