{"title":"Othmar Schoeck","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"schoeck-elegie-op-36","title":"Schoeck: Elegie, Op. 36 \/ Gerhaher, Holliger, Basel Chamber Orchestra","description":"\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA \u003cem\u003eNew Yorker\u003c\/em\u003e Notable Recording of 2022!\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eOn his new album \u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eElegie\u003c\/em\u003e, Sony Classical artist and pre-eminent lieder singer Christian Gerhaher returns to the beguiling beauty and dark melancholy of late-Romantic Swiss composer Othmar Schoeck.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eSchoeck’s song-cycle \u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eElegie\u003c\/em\u003e was compared to music ‘from another world’ when it was first performed in 1923 and remains one of the unappreciated wonders of the lieder repertoire. Its 24 songs, accompanied by an ensemble of 15 instrumentalists, trace a narrative of aching farewells, lost love, and fading beauty.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eChristian Gerhaher is in demand the world over for his instantly recognizable baritone voice, which combines lightness and lyricism with unparalleled depth of meaning. It is the perfect vessel for Austro-German lieder and has found a resonant home in Schoeck’s music. Following in the footsteps of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Gerhaher has already proved himself a renowned exponent of Schoeck’s \u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eNotturno\u003c\/em\u003e for baritone and string quartet.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eOn this new recording of \u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eElegie\u003c\/em\u003e, Gerhaher’s characteristic plangent delivery and intimacy with the microphone reveal the glowing beauty of these curious and captivating songs, which set handpicked poems by Eichendorff and Lenau. The cycle presents a series of atmospheric portraits linked by a first person half-narrative that slips and slides between emotional states, much of it stalked by a deep sense of loneliness.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eSchoeck’s dark, introspective score has prompted intrigue among musicologists and historians. Some speculate that \u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eElegie\u003c\/em\u003e was a reaction to the composer’s intense but ultimately unhappy relationship with the pianist Mary de Senger, and his coming to terms with its anguished end (\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eElegie\u003c\/em\u003e is dedicated to the pianist). Others have interpreted the work as Schoeck’s farewell to Romanticism, as the musical avant-garde moved to a place he no longer understood.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eSchoeck’s music did react to contemporary trends. \u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eElegie\u003c\/em\u003e’s etched, precise and luminous ensemble of 15 players glances in the direction of Schoenberg’s \u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003ePierrot Lunaire\u003c\/em\u003e and Stravinsky’s \u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eHistoire du Soldat\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eOn this recording, Gerhaher is joined by the boutique ensemble that is the Basel Chamber Orchestra and conductor Heinz Holliger.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eREVIEWS\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eChristian Gerhaher, perhaps [Dietrich] Fischer-Dieskau’s most formidable modern successor, has made an even stronger case in recordings of “\u003c\/span\u003eNotturno\u003cspan\u003e” and “Elegie,” two Schoeck cycles for voice and ensemble. The Sony Classical label released Gerhaher’s account of “\u003c\/span\u003eElegie\u003cspan\u003e” earlier this year, and I have been listening to it obsessively, a little more mystified and mesmerized each time.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eGerhaher, born to sing such music, applies burnished tone, precise diction, and a hint of a cabaret artist’s arched eyebrows. The ensemble weaves dark magic around him...Heinz Holliger, who conducts the Basel Chamber Orchestra on the Sony recording, chooses to augment the string section, which only enriches the effect. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e--\u003cem\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/em\u003e (Alex Ross)\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eIn a new recording with the Basel Chamber Orchestra and the conductor Heinz Holliger, Christian Gerhaher, a Schoeck champion, plies his sumptuous baritone in declamatory lines and arching phrases, and reaches effortlessly for limpid high notes. His voice recedes hauntingly into rests without cheating the full values of the notes.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\"\u003eTransience dominates: A string or a woodwind instrument, sometimes doubling the vocal line, sighs and dissipates against a stark orchestral landscape. Many songs hover around the two-minute mark, expiring quickly like lilacs plunked in a vase — fragrant, blooming, short-lived. Gerhaher and the players deliver the listener from these tiny deaths in the final, and longest, song, “Der Einsame,” sustaining its delicately spun lines in pillowy A-flat major and making peace with loneliness.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\"\u003e--The New York \u003cem\u003eTimes\u003c\/em\u003e (Oussama Zahr)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv id=\"gtx-trans\" style=\"position: absolute; left: -7px; top: -20px;\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"gtx-trans-icon\"\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Sony Masterworks","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46012678766826,"sku":"194399633021","price":11.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/4075310-2826933.jpg?v=1778241334"}],"url":"https:\/\/arkivmusic.com\/collections\/othmar-schoeck.oembed","provider":"ArkivMusic","version":"1.0","type":"link"}