Damrau / Schubertiade 2006

Friday, January 25th 2008

Diana Damrau
Schubertiade 2006

It seems that no rung is too high on Diana Damrau‘s career ladder: after being made a Bavarian Kammersangerin during the summer of 2007, she is currently appearing at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, alternating in the roles of Pamina and the Queen of Night and renewing her links with a house that has now become something of a second home to her. But the soprano‘s countless appearances in the great opera houses of the world have not prevented her from continuing to cultivate the intimate form of the German art song on the very highest level, and her recital at the 2006 Schubertiade in Schwarzenberg was greeted with a standing ovation. This was the first time that Diana Damrau had worked with Helmut Deutsch, one of the foremost lieder accompanists of our day. As one might hope from artists of this calibre, singer and pianist succeeded at once in communicating not only with each other but also with their audience, an impression amply confirmed by the present live recording of a thoroughly Romantic programme that also includes several rarities and explores a number of byways of the repertory. Not only Robert and Clara Schumann are represented by their own groups of lieder, so too are Felix Mendelssohn and his sister Fanny. Two settings of poems by Heinrich Heine, Die Lotosblume and Lorelei, demonstrate the flexibility of Diana Damrau and Helmut Deutsch in switching between subtle hints and a narrative tone that is charged with tension. The soprano also rose to the challenge of learning a number of Chopin‘s Polish songs in their original language. Diana Damrau has too few opportunities to demonstrate her Francophilia in the opera house, with the result that Liszt‘s settings of poems by Victor Hugo are all the more welcome in that they also flatter the ear of the listener. And in Brahms‘s folksongs, too, Diana Damrau and Helmut Deutsch reveal themselves to be stylistically assured and imaginative interpreters keen to narrate these miniature stories.

text by Orfeo

C. Schumann: Das ist ein Tag, der klingen mag op. 23 Nr. 5
C. Schumann: Was weinst du, Blumlein op. 23 Nr. 1
C. Schumann: Ihr Bildnis op. 13 Nr. 1
C. Schumann: Die stille Lotosblume op. 13 Nr. 6
C. Schumann: Lorelei op. 53 Nr. 2
R. Schumann: Lied der Suleika op. 25 Nr. 9 (Wie mit innigstem Behagen, 1840)
R. Schumann: Jemand op. 25 Nr. 4 (1840)
R. Schumann: Der Nussbaum op. 25 Nr. 3 (1840)
R. Schumann: Lieder der Braut aus dem Liebesfruhling I op. 25 Nr. 11 (1840)
R. Schumann: Lieder der Braut aus dem Liebesfruhling II op. 25 Nr. 12 (1840)
R. Schumann: Die Lotosblume op. 25 Nr. 7 (1840)
R. Schumann: Widmung op. 25 Nr. 1 (1840)
F. Mendelssohn Bartholdy: Neue Liebe op. 19a Nr. 4
F. Mendelssohn Bartholdy: Der Blumenstraus op. 47 Nr. 5
F. Mendelssohn Bartholdy: Der Mond op. 86 Nr. 5
F. Mendelssohn Bartholdy: Hexenlied op. 8 Nr. 8
F. Chopin: Mein Geliebter op. 74 Nr. 8
F. Chopin: Litauisches Lied op. 74 Nr. 16
F. Chopin: Der Krieger op. 74 Nr. 10
F. Liszt: S'il est un charmant gazon S 284
F. Liszt: Enfant, si j'etais roi
F. Liszt: Oh! quand je dors S 282
J. Brahms: Standchen op. 106 Nr. 1 (1888)
J. Brahms: Wie Melodien zieht es mir op. 105 Nr. 1 (1886)
J. Brahms: Da unten im Tale WoO 33,6 (Volkslied, 1894)
J. Brahms: Wie komm' ich denn zur Tur herein WoO 33,34 (Volkslied, 1894)
J. Brahms: Vergebliches Standchen op. 84 Nr. 4 (Volkslied, 1881)
F. Mendelssohn-Hensel: Bergeslust
F. Mendelssohn-Hensel: Warum sind denn die Rosen so blas?
F. Mendelssohn-Hensel: Nach Suden op. 10 Nr. 1
R. Schumann: Liebeslied op. 51 Nr. 5
F. Liszt: Es mus ein Wunderbares sein S 314 (Es muss ein Wunderbares sein)
R. Schumann: Singet nicht in Trauertonen op. 98a Nr. 7
J. Brahms: Wiegenlied op. 49 Nr. 4 (1868)

Diana Damrau(Sopran)
Helmut Deutsch (Klavier)
Recorded：4, September, 2006 (Live)