Franz Schubert (1797-1828)
Stimme der Liebe
Ian Partridge(tenor/piano)
Jennifer Partridge (piano); Ernest Lush (piano)
rec. live 1968-1972, BBC broadcasts. AAD
First releases on disc
German texts and English translations
Somm Recordings SOMMCD0670 [68]
Ian Partridge retired from performance in 2008, but I heard him sing six years later. He was giving an introductory talk ahead of another singer’s recital of Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin. He sat at the piano and accompanied himself (he began as a pianist) and sang, of course, to illustrate his talk. He rolled back the years. His voice was as recognisable and fresh as ever. Audience members gathered round afterwards and asked him why, since he still sang so well, he had retired. “Thank you” he said, “ but it’s the stamina.” “It’s a young man’s cycle”, he added. He had recorded it for Classics for Pleasure in 1973. That version was once judged as the best by BBC Radio 3’s “Building a Library” feature, and was hardly surpassed since. The BBC recitals from which these recordings are taken – now on disc for the first time – are of that vintage and that quality.
But do not take my word for it. In a 2009 letter to Ian Partridge (included in the CD booklet), Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, one of Partridge’s early inspirations in this repertoire, wrote:
Listening to your Schubert was and is a pure joy […] you got just the right feeling for these jewels. One more merit is that you keep your register throughout and secure by that such a wonderful unity […] You deal very well with the difficulties of our language, better than I could ever sing in a foreign language! To me the most evident is your respectand love for the music, which has become very rare with singers.
We do not know what Schubert recordings Partridge had sent to the great baritone to get such a response, but those qualities are all on display here. I will only add that his sister Jennifer Partridge was the accompanist in fifteen of these twenty songs. They gave over 430 recitals across 52 years, beginning when she was a teenager. She wrote: “ We got on extraordinarily well […] we didn’t have to discuss every detail – we could just let things happen.” That closeness and spontaneity is evident – not that there is anything inferior in the three songs where the singer accompanies himself, or the two with Ernest Lush. (Jennifer had an independent career, so was not always available.)
The programme includes several popular Lieder, such as Im Frühling, Das Fischermädchen, Nachtviolen and An den Mond. These performances compare well with the many fine ones I knew already. I like the fresh engaging tone, natural to this voice, the command of a lyrical line, the rhythmical alertness, the feeling for text and mood – in short the sheer musicality of this art. There is none of the “pinched whiteness” of tone heard in some English tenors. The interpretations are always natural, never “interventionist” or point-making. I prefer these songs in the usually original higher key of the tenor voice. As it happens, without transposition of the keys, baritones would be denied these songs, even Fischer-Dieskau!
The less well-known items include Vor meiner Wiege (At my cradle), which Partridge in his CD booklet interview calls one of Schubert’s “most inspired creations”. Like many late songs – this comes from Schubert’s last year – it concerns death. The singer looks at the cradle of his infancy, and compares it to his coffin at life’s end. At 5:22, it is the longest song on the disc at 5:22 (Fischer-Dieskau was eleven seconds slower), and is sung with touching insight. Partridge comments: “In the performance on this CD I did feel I reached almost what I was aiming for.”
The booklet includes complete German texts, and informative notes and translations by Richard Stokes. Those are in English only, though, which allows for an unusually full booklet. Lani Spahr restored the BBC recordings. The sound is always adequate, only a little dated. Sonically, the voice sometimes fares better than the piano. There are some shifts of perspective, the voice a touch closer in some recitals than in others. Apart from a slight grittiness in the vocal sound in Die gefangenen Sänger, little here inhibits absorption of the fine music making.
SOMM has placed us in their debt by recovering these recordings and presenting them so well. The disc is a worthy tribute for Ian Partridge’s 85th birthday on 12 June 2023. One hopes that it does not mean a one-off. The BBC archive must have many more Partridge treasures, not only Schubert’s songs – more of which would be very welcome – but also other masters of the Lied, of English song, and much else. Many lovers of great singing would surely support a SOMM/BBC series of Partridge recordings, with which the catalogue does not really overflow.
Roy Westbrook
Previous reviews: John Quinn (July 2023) ~ Ralph Moore (July 2023)
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Contents
Im Frühling, D882 [4:40]
Erster Verlust, D226 (Goethe) [2:12]
Dass sie hier gewesen! D775 (Rückert) [3:41]
Der Einsame, D800 [4:00]
Nachtviolen D752 (Mayrhofer) [3:10]
An Mein Herz D860 [3:14]
Die gefangenen Sänger D712 (Schlegel) [4:10]
An den Mond, D193 [3:33]
Der blinde Knabe D833 [3:06]
Über Wildemann D884 (Ernst Schulze) [1:58]
Vor meiner Wiege, D927 (Leitner) [5:22]
Bei dir allein, D866/2 [2:05]
Die Liebe hat gelogen D751 (Platen) [2:49]
Nähe des Geliebten, D162 [3:52]
Alinde, D904 [4:00]
Ihr Bild, D957 No. 9 [3:09]*
Das Fischermädchen D957 No. 10 [1:57]*
Nacht und Träume, D827 [4:01]*
Stimme der Liebe D412 (Stolberg) [2:05]**
Sei mir gegrüsst! D741 (Rückert) [4:18]**
Performers
Ian Partridge (tenor), Jennifer Partridge (piano), *Ian Partridge (piano), **Ernest Lush (piano)
