BRAHMS: Lieder Complete Edition vol. 4

Banse, Juliane, Deutsch, Helmut, Schmidt, Andreas

CPO 999444

In the summer of 1868, Johannes Brahms prepared a whole series of songs for printing, which appeared in the fall of the same year with the work numbers 46 to 49. More than half of them had been written considerably earlier, and Brahms probably subjected them to at least partial revision. What is particularly striking about the collections op. 47-49, which we are now publishing in our Brahms edition, is that they are simply identified as songs and have a relatively high proportion of folk texts. At first glance, the subject matter of the texts - Liebesfreud und Liebesleid, cheerful evening mood, but also transience and wistful remembrance - seems motley. A certain bracket, however, is provided by the aforementioned tendency toward folksiness. The songs and chants by G. F. Daumer, published three years later as op. 57, are quite different. They are characterized by a surprisingly undisguised sensuality - which was appropriately denounced in contemporary criticism. Our two star performers are Juliane Banse and Andreas Schmidt, as always sensitively accompanied by Helmut Deutsch.

Works:

•Brahms: Lieder (5), Op. 47
•Brahms: Lieder (5), Op. 49
•Brahms: Lieder (7), Op. 48
•Brahms: Lieder und Gesänge (8), Op. 57
•Brahms: Lieder und Gesänge, Op. 58, Nos. 1-8

CD x 1

CPO

11/23/01

761203944422