Schumann: Lieder on Record & Legendary Cycle Recordings

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In 1984, just as the long-playing gramophone record was supposedly fading into the sunset, the British record company EMI issued an 8-LP box in green livery compiled by Keith Hardwick and entitled “Schumann & Brahms Lieder on Record 1901-1952”. That was the year after the introduction of the Compact Disc, which was expected to deliver the coup de grâce to the vinyl record introduced in 1948. Fast forward to today: LPs are still around, so are CDs, but EMI as the world’s oldest and once greatest recorded music organization is no more – its heirs and successors are the majors Warner and Universal. Be that as it may, the English company has won eternal honor for its invaluable service to music in preserving historic vocal documents in such painstakingly edited sets as “The Record of Singing” or indeed “… Lieder on Record” (RLS 1547003). However, the Schumann-Brahms box was not available “overseas” – in countries outside Great Britain, that is – save for brief periods and in homeopathic quantities, and then only as an import. Hänssler Classic and editor Dieter Fuoss are now closing the gap, initially with the part devoted to Robert Schumann (born June 8, 1810, Zwickau – died July 29, 1856, Endenich on the outskirts of Bonn). He fills the first three albums with “Lieder in historic recordings”. A fourth album completes the set with three song cycles by Schumann in legendary interpretations.

REVIEWS:

The Profil series Lieder on Record has had a new addition. Volume 2 with songs by Robert Schumann has been released. If you want to find out how important Schumann interpreters have performed his songs, you can’t miss this box. The songs are heard in historic recordings made between 1901 and 1951. The performers include Lotte and Lili Lehmann, Friedrich Schorr, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Victoria de los Angeles, Leo Slezak, Feodor Schaljapin, Richard Tauber, Elisabeth Schumann, Karl Erb, Willi Domgraf-Fassbaender, Frida Leider, Hans Hotter, Elisabeth Höngen, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and many others.  

-- Pizzicato

This set is a treasure trove for anyone who would like to hear dozens of singers from the first half of the 20th Century sing songs of Robert Schumann. It shows how performance style evolved in that time, including interpretive liberties taken. It offers a chance to hear dozens of voices, many I’ve never heard—or even heard of—before. You get to hear how different singers perform some of the same songs.

This set will appeal mainly to people interested in hearing how people of the first half of last century approached lieder. Some of them are very good, others are terrible. Many of the singers are hardly remembered today, and the liner notes tell us little about them. The liner notes give only general background information. As you would expect, texts and translations are not supplied.

-- American Record Guide



Product Description:


  • Release Date: September 03, 2021


  • Catalog Number: PH21025


  • UPC: 881488210255


  • Label: Hänssler & Profil


  • Number of Discs: 4


  • Period: Romantic


  • Composer: Robert Schumann


  • Conductor: Frieder Weissmann, Manfred Gurlitt


  • Orchestra/Ensemble: Odeon Chamber Orchestra


  • Performer: Adolf Stauch, Aksel Schiotz, Alice Raveau, Árpád Sándor, Artur Schnabel, Betsy Rijkens-Culp, Bruno Seidler-Winkler, Charles Panzera, Coenraad Bos, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Elena Gerhardt, Elisabeth Höngen, Elisabeth Schumann, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Enni Dennijs-kroyt, Erik Schmedes, Felia Litvinne, Feodor Chaliapin, Flora Nielsen, Frida Leider, Frieda Hempel, Friedrich Schorr, Fritz Kitzinger, Fritz Schrodter, George Henschel, George Reeves, Gerald Moore, Gerhard Hüsch, Giuseppe Borgatti, Godfroy Andolfi, Hanns Udo Müller, Hans Hermann Nissen, Hans Hotter, Hans Zipper, Herbert Janssen, Jo Vincent, John McCormack, Julia Culp, Karl Alwin, Karl Erb, Karl Schmitt-Walter, Lilli Lehmann, Lotte Lehmann, Louis van Tulder, Lucrezia Bori, Lydia Lipkowska, Magdeleine Panzera-Baillot, Marie Knüpfer-Egli, Michael Raucheisen, Otto Bake, Paul Baumgartner, Percy Kahn, Pierre Bernac, Ria Ginster, Richard Tauber, Robert Jager, Susan Metcalfe-Casals, Therese Behr-Schnabel, Thom Denijs, Ursula van Diemen, Victor Graef, Victoria de los Angeles, Vittorio Arimondi, Wilhelm Birrenkoven