Landmark Schöne Müllerin performances on record

[LKB]

Konstantin Krimmel's got a gorgeous voice, baritone, like a cup of velvety Italian style hot chocolate. He  is sensitive to the text in an unforced, natural sounding way. He can do introspective beautifully. It's very much Krimmel's show but Heide is absolutely fine. Good sound.  A downside it's that he occasionally embellishes the music in a way which becomes predictable, I think they're called turns.

Going to the well too often - whether for ornaments or for interpretive cliches of any type - will inevitably turn against you. 

[Mandryka]

Jonas Kaufmann is so radiant, so colourful, and the interpretation is so upbeat, that I think this CD is a real shot in the arm (you can tell I've just had my COVID vaccine.)

 More studied, more knowing, more complicated and nuanced, than Peter Blochwitz -- someone compares Kaufmann unfavourably with him on Amazon.de but I'm glad to have heard both.

[Florestan]

Jonas Kaufmann is so radiant, so colourful, and the interpretation is so upbeat, that I think this CD is a real shot in the arm (you can tell I've just had my COVID vaccine.)

Make sure to check their Winterreise as well. And while you're at it, their Liszt Lieder disc. Imho, they are a match made in heaven, such as Di Fi-Di & Gerald Moore or Gerard Souzay & Dalton Baldwin.

[Mandryka]

A couple more landmarks.

Mauro Peter was the pick of the pack in the last BBC Radio 3 Building a Library on this cycle. It strikes me as immaculate and restrained, humble. I think the technical term is "museum quality" The programme, from 2018, is still streaming - I haven't listened yet but will do.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p069qtv7

Very satisfying to return to Mauro Peter, in this case "museum quality" is not a pejorative. The voice is immaculate - maybe the piano could do with a bit more character, but maybe not.

I saw Pregardian perform it with Schiff on Friday. I didn't enjoy Pregardian, I thought his embellishments were unnatural and overstated, he would do well to learn from Mauro Peter. Schiff was very good though . . . and it's interesting how the presence of a fortepiano - with its colourful registers and "speaking" character - changes the feel of the whole cycle.