Great Lieder Recordings

[North Star]

That Isokoski Strauss disc is superb.

Here are some of my favourites:
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Also Monica Groop's Schubert, Brahms, and Sibelius. And Isokoski's & Karita Mattila's Sibelius, and Christoph Pregardien's Schubert

[Ten thumbs]

It good to see plenty of music from outside of the usual suspects.
Here are some more from the other great lieder composers:

Josephine Lang: 20 lieder by Heike Hallaschka (SWR)
Fanny Hensel: the published lieder + by Susan Gritton (Hyperion)
Also an excellent selection of 53 of her lieder put together by Troubadisc. This uses four singers: Soprano, mezzo, tenor and baritone, which is a good plan because to have a man sing a woman's song is like employing a cellist to play a violin sonata (or vice versa). Although to be fair, most of the poetry is by men!

[Shrunk]

The English language repertoire is also easily overlooked.  These two collections by Bryn Terfel are very good.

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[Marc]

Lucia Popp & Geoffrey Parsons, both in top shape, delivering a very interesting programme at the 1981 Salzburger Festspiele, with a.o. Prokofiev, Kodály, Brahms, Mahler and Lehar. One of my favourite Lieder discs:



http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0000044WI/

[mjwal]

I agree with most of Mandryka's choices (where I have heard them). I have not been able to muster up much enthusiasm for many recent recordings, most of which I know from YouTube and other sources i.e. I don't normally buy them in either sense of the word.
Mozart: I haven't really progressed to anything more recent than Schwarzkopf/Gieseking - those 16 songs were once available on a EMI Références CD which included a couple of later recordings with Brendel & Szell. - Another great soprano Lieder interpreter of that period was Irmgard Seefried, a lot of whose wonderful earlier recordings are on YouTube. Her voice started going off in the late 50s but her interpretations always have a simplicity and character I seldom find in more recent singers. I do recommend her 1956 recordings of
Schubert with her regular accompanist Erik Werba (once?) available on an Archipel CD. There's a very fine 1957 mixed recital from Salzburg, also with Werba, on Orfeo, which starts with a "Das Veilchen" which goes to the heart, then after a luminous K.598 moves on to Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann and Wolf - all Goethe settings. Also not to be missed despite the late date two BBC recitals on BBCL, with Brahms, Schubert and Wolf: Goethe again with the last two, very remarkable in the mini-Faust-opera (almost) of the 4 Schubert settings of Goethe; nobody will sing D.126 like that again. Of course, Schwarzkopf's EMI Schubert recital with Edwin Fischer is erste Sahne, as the Germans say.The male Schubert singers i really appreciate are the old Karl Erb, Heinrich Schlusnus, Axel Schiötz, Julius Patzak, Hans Hotter and the young Gerard Souzay. Try them on YouTube then search Amazon. - Those Seefried
Brahms performances are very expressive : listen to her "Nicht mehr zu dir zu gehen" (Op.32/2) - one of Brahms's saddest & most desperate songs. I also recommend Janet Baker's Brahms recital on BBCL; she only lacks that knife-edge of sorrow or joy that Seefried alone was so remarkable for. For the other 8 songs in that Op.32 cycle (yes!) and more you need Olaf Bär, still sounding very fresh in his GDR days (1987) on a long-gone EMI/Eterna disc of Brahms Lieder, tracing the hard-won transition from gloomy unease to serenity in the transcendent "Wie bist du, meine Königin" (which you may know as a stand-alone - but believe me, it only makes real sense in the context). This will be very hard to find. Alexander Kipnis and Hotter singing the Vier ernste Gesänge (and more) are however probably easier to find - essential! Kim Borg is also good in this work.
Schumann: Schiötz/Moore, Panzéra/Cortot, and the young Souzay/Bonneau for Dichterliebe. I do appreciate F-D/Moore for once in a 1959 Salzburg recital including Opp. 35 and 39, almost as good in the latter as on his 1954 recording for EMI, long nla. I also enjoyed both Goerne and Terfel in this cycle.
Wolf: Schwarzkopf and Seefried (see above) above all other female singers; Kipnis and Hotter in particular for the 3 Michelangelo-Lieder - Borg and the young F-D are also fine in that mini-cycle, which is the pinnacle of Wolf's art, together with the Mörike-Lieder in my opinion. The first time I listened to Kipnis singing "Alles endet, was entstehet" I could not listen to anything else for days (i.e. don't listen when depressed).
As to Schoeck, I've no doubt Guido will have a pile of recommendations, particularly that marvellous orchestral cycle Elegie beautifully sung by Andreas Schmidt, and there is a fine anthology by F-D in the DG Fischer-Dieskau Edition, if you can still find it. His recording of Notturno with the Juilliard Quartet on CBS LP is excellent, but it seems never to have been digitalised.
I'm sure there are enough recommendations of Mahler Lieder recordings on this site to fill your letterbox to overflowing, so I will say no more.
Oh, and a question: shouldn't this whole thread be moved to the Vocal department?

[The new erato]

Thank you for a really wonderful post.

[Sammy]

Oh, and a question: shouldn't this whole thread be moved to the Vocal department?

Doesn't make much difference to me.  I put it in Great Recordings because I was looking for, you know, great recordings.  Since I've received a plentiful number of responses, I'm well satisfied at this point.

[knight66]

Interesting that so many posts are from people who declare a lack of interest: but I would not argue with the selections suggested. However, if Sammy can be bothered, he will find discussion on the topics in the Vocal threads, which is where this thread could well belong. But then, most of the posters so far would probably have ignored it. So swings and roundabouts.

Mike

[Sammy]

Interesting that so many posts are from people who declare a lack of interest: but I would not argue with the selections suggested. However, if Sammy can be bothered, he will find discussion on the topics in the Vocal threads, which is where this thread could well belong. But then, most of the posters so far would probably have ignored it. So swings and roundabouts.

Mike

I hadn't thought about the notion that I'd get more postings on Great Recordings than Vocal, but that's probably correct. 

Given the little synopsis under Great Recordings, I feel I made a reasonable choice.  If it's felt that all questions concerning vocal recordings should be in the Vocal threads, then perhaps it's best to alter that synopsis for Great Recordings.  Or we could just use some flexibility.

[knight66]

Well, you get the flexibility, because I have left the thread alone. There are a number of vocal threads here. We are not doctrinaire about it. But you might find some interest in the vocal threads if you want more detail.

Mike