Top 10 Favorite Song Cycles

[kyjo]

All mine would be with orchestral accompaniment (surprise, surprise!):

Schoenberg: Gurrelieder
Berg: Seven Early Songs
Ravel: Sheherazade
Mahler: Das Lied der von Erde
Martinu: Magic Nights
Mussorgsky: Songs and Dances of Death (in Aho's orchestration)
Sallinen: Songs of Life and Death
Delius: Norwegian Songs (orch. Bo Holten)
Any of Koechlin's orchestral songs
Bloch: Poemes d'automne

Honorable mentions:

Bantock: Sappho
Berlioz: Les nuits d'ete
Aho: Chinese Songs
Szymanowski: Songs of a Fairy-Tale Princess
Nystroem: Songs by the Sea
Schoeck: Elegie
Finzi: Intimations of Immortality
Harty: Ode to a Nightingale
Maw: Scenes and Arias
Britten: Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings
Griffes: Five Poems of Ancient China and Japan

[kishnevi]

Mostly orchestral, but Schubert leads off the list.

Schubert: Die Schone Mullerin
Schubert: Winterreise
Berlioz: Nuits d'Ete
Mahler: Kindertotenlieder
Mahler: Ruckert Lieder
Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde
Szymanowski: Songs from Hafiz (I think that's the title)
Britten: Les Illuminations
Britten: Nocturne for Tenor, etc.
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 14 (yes, I know)

[DavidW]

Schubert gets top billing, everyone else is second!

[springrite]

Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde
Mahler: Songs of a Wayfarer (Kimi's top pick)
Schumann: Frauenlieb und Leben
Schubert: Winterreise
Schoeck: Elegie
Martin: Der Cornett
Mahler: Kindertotenlieder
Schoeck: Noctturn
Sallinen: Songs of Life and Death
Crumb: Madrigals

[vandermolen]

Novak's Eight Nocturnes for Voice and Orchestra (especially for 'Christchild's Lullaby')
Vaughan Williams On Wenlock Edge
Cantaloube Songs of the Auvergne
Butterworth A Shropshire Lad
Ravel Sheherazade
Finzi Dies Natalis
Copland Old American Songs (both sets)
Vaughan Williams Songs of Travel
Vaughan Williams Five Mystical Songs
Butterworth Love blows as the wind blows (especially 'Coming up from Kew')

[kyjo]

Novak's Eight Nocturnes for Voice and Orchestra (especially for 'Christchild's Lullaby')
Cantaloube Songs of the Auvergne
Finzi Dies Natalis

I shouldn't have forgotten these! All are beautiful works.

[Brian]

I'm actually gonna go mostly orchestral too. Lieder are a field in which I'm shamefully ignorant; haven't even seriously absorbed Schubert's cycles yet. Like the Bach cantatas, something I'll spend a decade on when I'm older. 

Alphabetical.

Canteloube: Chants d'Auvergne
Elgar: Sea Pictures
Mahler: Des Knaben Wunderhorn
Mahler: Ruckert-Lieder
Martinu: Magic Nights
Martinu: Nipponari
Montsalvatge: Cinco canciones negras
Ravel: Sheherazade
Schumann: Dichterliebe
Strauss: Four Last Songs

"Dichterliebe" was my introduction to "songs" as a genre, so it gets a place. If R. Strauss's songs aren't numerous enough to count as a proper "song cycle," then my #1 choice of all is ... the Montsalvatge!!

[The new erato]

One of the finest orchestral song cycles I know of is Frank Martin's Der Cornet. Right up there with Das Lied von der Erde and Symphony no 14 by you know who. Strauss 4 letzte and Elgar Sea Pictures are right behind, as is Schoeck's Lebendig Begraban.

With piano there's the 2 major Schobert cucles, Schumann's Frauenlieb und leben and Wolf's Italiniesche Liederbuch.

[North Star]

One per composer, I don't count DSH14 as a song cycle for practical reasons.   0:)



Berlioz: Les nuits d'ete
Britten: Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings
Elgar: Sea Pictures
Janácek: Moravian Folk Poetry in Songs
Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde
Ravel: Chansons madécasses
Schubert: Winterreise
Schumann: Dichterliebe
Schoenberg: Gurrelieder
Strauss: Four Last Songs

[DavidW]

haven't even seriously absorbed Schubert's cycles yet. Like the Bach cantatas, something I'll spend a decade on when I'm older ecstatically listen to right now!!!

There fixed that for you.

[The new erato]

There fixed that for you.

An essential, but expensive, fix I'm afraid.

[DavidW]

An essential, but expensive, fix I'm afraid.

Oh yeah I guess Brian's not made of money...

[mc ukrneal]

An essential, but expensive, fix I'm afraid.

Not as expensive as it used to be. Brilliant can often be found in a special deal somewhere and the Rilling set is relatively decently priced.

[Verena]

Schubert gets top billing, everyone else is second!
[


Indeed, especially Winterreise
I wonder why no one has mentioned Schumann op 39 so far, which I consider at least the equal of Dichterliebe, and which is probably my second favorite cycle

[Karl Henning]

All mine would be with orchestral accompaniment (surprise, surprise!):

What are the ten cycles with piano accompaniment which you like best, Kyle?

[DavidW]

Verena I'll have to listen to Schumann's Op 39.  Have not listened to any of Schumann's lieder.

[Verena]

Verena I'll have to listen to Schumann's Op 39.  Have not listened to any of Schumann's lieder.

I hope you'll like them. Op 39 is my favorite among his cycles. It contains what is probably his most famous song, "Mondnacht" - which combines great music and great poetry. This is actually one advantage Schumann does have over Schubert - his lyrics are usually much better.

[kyjo]

What are the ten cycles with piano accompaniment which you like best, Kyle?

I'm afraid I couldn't give you ten because I haven't heard too many song cycles with piano accompaniment, but a couple I've heard that I remember liking are Grieg's Haugtussa, Ravel's Chansons madécasses, and Rachmaninov's Twelve Songs. Those are all that I can remember at the moment.

[Madiel]

The full Schumann cycles I have - Dictherliebe, the Heine Liederkreis, the Eichendorff Liederkreis, and the Kerner Lieder - are all pretty good. I certainly remember thinking that I preferred them to the Schubert cycles in some respects, just because the Schubert ones (as great as they are) can feel like a depressing emotional slog.

Other ones I have and like include Barber's Hermit Songs, Finzi's Let Us Garlands Bring (Shakespeare settings) and in the orchestral realm Mahler's Kidertotenlieder and Ruckert-Lieder.

[kishnevi]

I certainly remember thinking that I preferred them to the Schubert cycles in some respects, just because the Schubert ones (as great as they are) can feel like a depressing emotional slog.

I've been known to say of something that it's depressing enough to be a Schubert song cycle.  To be fair, Schubert did write scads of not depressing songs, and Schwanengesang is not, in its components, very depressing, although of course it's a true cycle in the way that Mullerin and Winterreise are.

And Schumann could write a somber song cycle--the Mary Stuart songs are good examples of that.