Complete Schubert songs on Hyperion

[Sean]

I just bought this from Amazon, 40 CDs in a handsome box, a bargain at UK£122. Graham Johnson accompanies 60 of the finest singers in over 600 songs, also included being all the vocal ensemble and choral works with piano, along with a few unaccompanied works; the last three CDs are not Schubert but songs by 40 contemporaries, many of them rather obscure.

For this edition the songs have been reordered chronologically, and hence there are numerous singers on each disc. A nice idea for tracing stylistic development but of course you don't get into the individual singer's character, which certainly for me is a great loss. There's an accompanying 420 page book with the texts, but without Johnson's superb notes supplied for the individual themed issues.

I can say I'm already familiar with about 160 songs but I'll be starting again with this and I'm not going to be short of new listening material for many many months.

[marvinbrown]

I just bought this from Amazon, 40 CDs in a handsome box, a bargain at UK£122. Graham Johnson accompanies 60 of the finest singers in over 600 songs, also included being all the vocal ensemble and choral works with piano, along with a few unaccompanied works; the last three CDs are not Schubert but songs by about 45 contemporaries, many of them rather obscure.

For this edition the songs have been reordered chronologically, and hence there are numerous singers on each disc. A nice idea for tracing stylistic development but of course you don't get into the individual singer's character, which certainly for me is a great loss. There's an accompanying 422 page book with the texts, but without Johnson's superb notes supplied for the individual themed issues.

I can say I'm already familiar with about 160 songs but I'll be starting again with this and I'm not going to be short of new listening material for many many months.

  Looks like you've got your work cut out for you Sean  .  Hope you enjoy and every one of those songs and look forward to reading your reviews.

marvin