Often regarded
as perhaps the greatest song cycle ever written, we're delighted to present
the world premiere recording, newly remastered by Andrew Rose from immaculate
78rpm discs.
This
classic interpretation remained in the HMV catalogue for over 20 years
and was regarded as definitive. It is almost complete - there is a verse
omitted from Gute Nacht to enable it to fit onto a 78 rpm side - and the
standard of recording almost matches the standard of musical artistry.
To
come across a set of this vintage and to be able to bring out such a wonderful
sound is one of the great privileges of doing this kind of work - since
its completion this is one recording which has remained constantly on
my listening list - the beauty of Schubert's bleak melancholy so
magically captured by Gerhard Hüsch and Hans Udo Müller
is one to return to over and over.
Between
1925 and 1945 Gerhard Hüsch was a regular star of the operatic stage,
making his debut Liberau in Lortzing’s Der Waffenschmied in
Osnabrück. He was also one of the most admired singers of Lieder
of the 1930's - as this recording demonstrates, this admiration was wholly
justified. After his retirement, Hüsch made a second outstanding
career as a master teacher of vocal interpretations, latterly also in
London.
This
recording was originally issued as a limited edition by HMV, listed under
their Society sets, and was followed a years later by a recording of Die
Schöne Müllerin, which we offer as PACO007.
Although
Beethoven is generally credited with creating the first song
cycle ("And die Ferne Geliebte"), Schubert ennobled
the genre with his two masterpieces "Die Schöne
Müllerin" and "Die Winterreise". In the
19th century only Schumann's "Dichterliebe" and
"Frauenliebe und Leben" competed with Schubert's
works. The 20th century has been more productive beginning
with Mahler's towering "Das Lied von der Erde",
Janacek's "The Diary of One Who Disappeared", continuing
with Frank Martin's "Sech Monologue aus Jedermann"
and the magnificent and nearly unknown "The Love and
Death of Cornet Christopher Rilke" and finally two of
Shostakovich's seminal works: the 14th symphony and the Suite
on Verses of Michelangelo.
But
none of these successors to Die Winterreise have managed to
create for an entire hour a mood of such intensity and despair.
In the earlier and happier work (Müllerin), the disappointed
lover drowns himself in the everpresent babbling brook. In
Die Winterreise, the jilted would-be bridegroom already is
ironically leaving town in the first song and about to embark
on an hour-long leave-taking journey where the winter outside
is as nothing compared to the winter in his soul. There are
moments of partial relief (Die Lindenbaum), but the jouney
leads to Der Leiermann, the Hurdy-Gurdy Man, barefoot on the
ice, in rags, who plays listlessly and gets no coppers and
moves on. The protagonist also has nowhere to go and nothing
else to do - a true winter of existential emptiness.
The
singer of Winterreise must maintain some variety within the
overall tragic framework. He must keep the protagonist's basic
identity in spite of the increasing mood swings toward the
end of the cycle: the more than a hint of suicide in Der Wegweiser
["One road I must travel by which no one ever returned"]
and the possible madness of Die Nebensonnen [The Phantom Suns].
I have been an appreciative fan of Gerhardt Hüsch's Winterreise
for at least 20 years, but Pristine Audio has scrubbed the
grime of the decades from it and and both Hüsch and Müller
emerge with unsuspected brilliance and power and it seems
as if I'm hearing them for the first time. Hüsch has
an incredibly pure, masculine and tender voice. His taste
is always very musical; he never shouts or growls or croons,
but he knows how to convey passion and sorrow. The piano playing
and piano sound is so gorgeous. 1933? It's hard to believe.
I'm
loath to mention highlights, but just a few: (1) the strong
and stately Der Lindenbaum, (2) the halting sadness of Wasserflut,
(3) the excellent limning of the rapidly changing moods of
Frühlingstraum, (4) the simple but ironic joy of Die
Post, (5) the proto-suicidal Die Wegweiser, and (6) the unsentimental,
affecting final Die Leiermann.
To
keep myself calibrated, I listened to Frühlingstraum
by four other great singers: Fischer-Dieskau (1955), Hotter
(1943), Haefliger (1985), and Prey (1984). Fischer-Dieskau
had all the artistry one expects, but his voice lacked the
beauty of Hüsch's. Hotter seemed too old and grim by
half. Haefliger was magnificent in his changes of timbre,
but the "whiteness" in his voice reduced the sensual
pleasure. Prey's voice was very beautiful and the closest
to Hüsch's in sound and artistry. I will not say that
Gerhardt Hüsch is the greatest Winterreise singer of
all, but I can say that in this marvelous restoration he and
his pianist present a very rare balance of beauty and musicianship
that brings life to this transcendent songcycle.
