Beethoven's Songs

Bogey · June 14, 2007, 12:35:24 PM

Any box sets that you would suggest for Beethoven's Songs? Or is piecing them together worth the effort? Thanks!

Gurn Blanston · June 14, 2007, 01:56:34 PM

Quote from: Bogey on June 14, 2007, 12:35:24 PM
Any box sets that you would suggest for Beethoven's Songs? Or is piecing them together worth the effort? Thanks!

Bill,
Berlin Classics have a 3 disk set of Peter Schreier/Walter Olbertz doing as many of the Lieder as you probably want. I got the set from cdconnection.com for <> $25. There are quite a few more, of course, and it doesn't include any duets, or like Op 52 (8 Lieder) and it only has 7 of them because #5 is for soprano, same with Op 75, one (#5 also) is a duet. It is a nice starter box, and may fill your needs. Hermann Prey did them all (with Adele Stoll in the duets) on Capriccio, and this is a very nice set, but is OOP and has become hard to find. Then, of course, there is the CBE Volume 16, but you may not be willing to fork over the $160 I last saw it going for... $:-\$

Bogey · June 14, 2007, 01:57:58 PM

Thanks for the start my friend.

val · June 15, 2007, 04:15:35 AM

Regarding an anthology of the best Lieder, including An die ferne Geliebte, there is a very beautiful CD with Fischer Dieskau and Gerald Moore, live in the Salzburg Festival (ORFEO).

Bogey · June 15, 2007, 06:36:51 AM

Thank you Val.

I may have to PM Rob and ask him to allocate more of the severs memory to this thread....this one is taking off like wildfire!

George · June 15, 2007, 07:18:37 AM

Quote from: Bogey on June 14, 2007, 12:35:24 PM
Any box sets that you would suggest for Beethoven's Songs? Or is piecing them together worth the effort? Thanks!

I've heard the full set on Capriccio by Prey is top shelf. Alas, OOP!!

Well, I've also heard good things about a Fischer Dieskau recital on Testament 1057 and another with Moore (that Val has mentioned) at the piano Orfeo 140501.

Also Stephan Genz on Hyperion is one I would like to get.

BachQ · June 15, 2007, 08:18:03 AM

Quote from: Bogey on June 15, 2007, 06:36:51 AM
I may have to PM Rob and ask him to allocate more of the severs memory to this thread....this one is taking off like wildfire!

I've just tried using the PM feature ......... it's been temporarily suspended due to the high bandwidth demanded by and allocated to this thread...........

George · June 15, 2007, 08:23:32 AM

Quote from: D Minor on June 15, 2007, 08:18:03 AM
I've just tried using the PM feature ......... it's been temporarily suspended due to the high bandwidth demanded by and allocated to this thread...........

I think it has something to do with the massive photos the kids like to use these days in their signatures.

zamyrabyrd · June 29, 2007, 07:14:31 AM

Quote from: Gurn Blanston on June 14, 2007, 01:56:34 PM
Berlin Classics have a 3 disk set of Peter Schreier...

I always thought that Schreier is/was a funny name for a singer.
Somehow Beethoven's songs lend themselves more to masculine voices.

ZB

Gabriel · July 02, 2007, 03:31:43 PM

I second Val by suggesting Fischer Dieskau's recording in Orfeo, a remarkable recital (I think there was a mistake in the tracks corresponding to the Gellert Lieder, but it is not really important). I have both Schreier and Prey's cycles, and none of them convinces me too much. Even if it isn't probably the "non plus ultra" of vocal singing, I'm quite fond of Olaf Bär's recording in EMI; his voice suits Beethoven's music quite well, and he provides a softness that is not usually found in recordings of these works.

Rod Corkin · July 07, 2007, 08:14:27 AM

Quote from: Bogey on June 14, 2007, 12:35:24 PM
Any box sets that you would suggest for Beethoven's Songs? Or is piecing them together worth the effort? Thanks!

I don't think anyone has mentioned the 3 disk set of lieder from DG's Complete Beethoven Edition. I bought this a few years back for only £16 which is good value. Fischer-Dieskau is at the helm for most of them, a bit heavy handed with some of the more boisterous moments, but sensitive with the quieter songs. He can't sing the English or Italian songs in the set to save his life, awful, but there are only a few of these. I think Beethoven's songs are seriously underrated.

zamyrabyrd · July 07, 2007, 08:59:14 AM

Quote from: Rod Corkin on July 07, 2007, 08:14:27 AM
Fischer-Dieskau...can't sing the English or Italian songs in the set to save his life, awful, but there are only a few of these.

I'd find such an allegation really hard to believe. Nothing I ever heard from him (live as well) EVER descended to the level of awful.

Quote from: Rod Corkin on July 07, 2007, 08:14:27 AM
I think Beethoven's songs are seriously underrated.

By whom? Singers?

ZB

Gurn Blanston · July 07, 2007, 10:42:14 AM

Quote from: Rod Corkin on July 07, 2007, 08:14:27 AM
I don't think anyone has mentioned the 3 disk set of lieder from DG's Complete Beethoven Edition. I bought this a few years back for only £16 which is good value....

Actually, I mentioned it in my first post. The obvious problem being that now it isn't £16, it's $160 US (used!

), which even I cringed at. Certainly it is a set to get though, if $$$/£££/€€€ is no object.

Rod Corkin · July 07, 2007, 10:57:27 AM

Quote from: Gurn Blanston on July 07, 2007, 10:42:14 AM
Actually, I mentioned it in my first post. The obvious problem being that now it isn't £16, it's $160 US (used! ), which even I cringed at. Certainly it is a set to get though, if $$$/£££/€€€ is no object.

I believe you mentioned the Berlin Classics release, I mentioned the DG release, though DG uses some of the BC recordings. Are you sure about $160 for 3 used CDs?! You don't have to buy the complete edition to get the leider, the components of the edition as sold separately too.

Gurn Blanston · July 07, 2007, 12:05:14 PM

Quote from: Gurn Blanston on June 14, 2007, 01:56:34 PM
... Then, of course, there is the CBE Volume 16, but you may not be willing to fork over the $160 I last saw it going for... $:-\$

Yes, I'm really sure, unfortunately. Although I just checked Amazon, and they have one for $35 US right now!!! This was the place where (when I posted previously) they had 2 used copies at $160 each. Sine it is OOP, people can charge whatever they wish, and some will actually pay that

Rod Corkin · July 07, 2007, 01:15:43 PM

Quote from: George on June 15, 2007, 07:18:37 AM

Also Stephan Genz on Hyperion is one I would like to get.

I advise only get it if you can find no other. I bought it and I was disappointed, the joyful numbers have no joy, and the heavier numbers have no gravity. And worse still he adds extra verses to some of the Gellert songs that Beethoven left out. These songs (Op48) are essentially a song cycle to be played all together and make a very satisfying collection. It is clear listening to this recording why Beethoven left out the verses in question. Yet despite all these issues the CD won a Gramophone Award. Fischer-Dieskau is better than this and I'm not particularly a fan of his.

Gurn Blanston · July 07, 2007, 03:02:42 PM

Quote from: Rod Corkin on July 07, 2007, 01:15:43 PM
...Fischer-Dieskau is better than this and I'm not particularly a fan of his.

Pity, much of his Schubert is really excellent...

torut · October 12, 2014, 07:26:29 PM

I'm listening to this recording by Hermann Prey (bariton), Pamela Coburn (soprano), and Leonard Hokanson (piano). So far, very nice. I suppose it is a reissue of the album mentioned in this thread.

Beethoven: Complete Songs (Capriccio, 2012)
[asin]B0085AXRV6[/asin]

king ubu · October 13, 2014, 03:22:22 AM

I dearly love "Adelaïde" - it's on one of the Fritz Wunderlich Schubert (or Schumann) discs on DG.

Just checked the EMI "Beethoven - The Collector's Edition" 50 disc box - the final disc opens with "Ah, perfido!" (sung by Birgit Nilsson) and goes on with fifteen Lieder sung by DFD - guess I'll have to listen to that disc soon. Not too big a fan of his, really (in Schubert, Wunderlich or Hotter beat him easily, to my ears).

Jo498 · October 13, 2014, 03:39:18 AM

I believe they are overall quite underrated. I too have a fondness for the early "Adelaide".

The "An die ferne Geliebte" cycle was a seminal piece that is closer to Schumann than to Schubert (the songs are completely integrated in the cycle and can hardly be sensibly sung separately), and accordingly it was an extremely important piece for Schumann who took the beginning of the last song (Nimm sie hin denn, diese Lieder/Take these songs from me) as a musical signature in many of his pieces.

Sure, there are also rather slight pieces, but many little gems. Another one is the first famous setting of the sarcastic "flea song" from Goethe's Faust (also set by Berlioz and Mussorgsky).