Add this copy of The Hyperion Schubert Edition 5 / Elizabeth Connell, to cart. $10.50, 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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Seller's Description:
Very Good. A clean unscratched CD with the original cover art and jewel case. Not a cutout, promo or club pressing. Shipping within 24 hours with a tracking number and delivery confirmation.
Add this copy of The Hyperion Schubert Edition 5 / Elizabeth Connell, to cart. $12.99, good condition, Sold by Meadeco Media rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from VINE GROVE, KY, UNITED STATES, published 1990 by Hyperion UK.
Add this copy of The Hyperion Schubert Edition 5 / Elizabeth Connell, to cart. $18.99, new condition, Sold by BMC1701 rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Norwalk, IA, UNITED STATES, published 1993 by Hyperion UK.
Add this copy of Schubert: The Complete Songs, Vol. 5 to cart. $11.95, like new condition, Sold by isbnbooks rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Eugene, OR, UNITED STATES, published 1989 by Hyperion.
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Fine in very good packaging. Originally released: 1989. Hyperion Schubert Edition, #6, 1989, CD with original case and 28 page insert, CD is near fine, no owner's mark
Elizabeth Connell (1946 -- 2012) was born in South Africa and achieved fame as an opera singer. She began as a mezzo-soprano but from 1983 and thereafter sang exclusively as a soprano with a large, dramatic operatic voice.
In 1989, Connell and the scholar-pianst Graham Johnson recorded a CD of Schubert songs. The CD was volume 5 in an ambitious project by Johnson to record the complete Schubert songs. Johnson arranged the songs thematically and gave each CD a title. The title of this volume is "Schubert and the Countryside." The cycle ran to 40 CDs when it was completed and is a great achievement in the recording art. In addition to accompanying the singers, Johnson wrote detailed, book-length liner notes for each CD which includes extensive discussions of each song together with an introductory essay.. The cycle is invaluable of listeners wanting to explore Schubert in depth. The complete songs are still available as a box set but not in the original format in which they were recorded. It is fortunate that the original CDs are still readily available to stream.
In every respect, this collaboration between Connell and Johnson is a treasure. It offers meltingly beautiful music and the opprtunity to hear a great singer at the height of her powers. The CD includes 14 Schubert songs from 13 different poets ( there are two settings of Friedrich von Matthison) composed throughout his short life. Some of the songs will be familiar to lovers of Schubert. But in a CD part of a complete cycle of over 600 songs, there always will be something new to discover.
Schubert composed some lengthy ballad early in his career most of which are relatively unknown. This CD includes one such song, the "Lament of Ceres" D. 323, a sprawling 17 minute work set to a text by Schiller. The operatic character of Connell's singing is on full display. The remaining 13 songs on this CD are short and of varied moods on the theme of nature.
The songs I enjoyed include "Ganymed", D. 544 to a text by Goethe, "Melancholy", D. 772 to a text by Matthaus von Collin, and "Song in the Country", D. 917, to a text by Friedrich Reil. These are among the more familiar Schubert songs. Other songs include a song "Far from the Great City" with a text by a female poet, Karoline Pichler, "The Earth" D. 579B to a text by Friedrich von Mathisson and not published until 1970, and "The Almighty", D. 852 by Johann Ladislaus Pryker, which also makes full use of the operatic qualities of Connell's voice.
Listeners may wish simply to become absobed in the flow of this CD with Schubert's beautiful melodies, shifts of emotion, together with Connell's expressive singing and her collaboration with Johnson. It is also valuable to explore the songs in more detail with the texts and Johnson's liner notes. Whichever approach or combination one chooses, this CD offers a special way of hearing the songs of Franz Schubert and the voice of Elizabeth Connell.
