Georg Schumann (1866-1952)
Ruth, Op. 50 (1908)
Ruth, Marcelina Román (soprano)
Naomi, Julie-Marie Sundal (contralto)
Boaz, Hanno Müller-Brachmann (bass-baritone)
Priest, Jonas Böhm (baritone)
Philharmonischer Chor Berlin
Brandenburgisches Staatsorchester Frankfurt/Jörg-Peter Weigle
rec. live, 2023, Philharmonie, Berlin
Texts and English translations provided
cpo 555 666-2 [2 CDs: 106]
A priest friend who used to serve my local parish would tell me when someone enquired about Christianity and/or conversion to the Catholic faith, he would always recommend they begin by reading the book of Ruth. The book is a little novella of just four chapters. It neither narrates history nor prophesy, it is a book about love and devotion and faith. It is set in the turbulent period of the Judges, but the truth is scholars don’t really know when it was written. It could be from the period of Kings or even the days of exile in Babylon. Of course, in Biblical genealogy, Ruth went on to be the grandmother of Jesse, father of King David. Jesus himself, the root of Jesse, has lineage from Ruth and this was prophesied in Isaiah.
Ruth has been cherished by many people over generations. My sister is named for her. Turning to its transferability as a text for a musical setting however has been problematic. The text being so short does not lend itself to an extended plot. There are only three characters, and a little knowledge of Jewish law and ritual is required for a full appreciation of the story. Georg Schumann found it difficult to recruit someone to work on the text, so he did it himself. He embellishes with references from Psalms, Proverbs and the Song of Songs. The resulting libretto is good; the music is outstanding, and I truly believe the recording here should be instrumental in bringing this work to the attention it so richly deserves.
Maybe you have never heard of Georg Schumann before? Born to a musical family, he studied in Leipzig with Reinecke. He was mostly known as a great choral conductor directing the famous Sing-Akademie zu Berlin for over fifty years. He took over the composition class at the Academy of Arts from Bruch in the year before Ruth was composed. We have already had several discs from cpo in their Georg Schumann series including the two symphonies. This new one though is a game changer.
The music is classic German late Romanticism. It is influenced most noticeably by Wagner. This will be obvious from the outset. There are parts of the score however which seem indebted to Liszt and Mendelssohn too. At the time of writing, Schumann must have been acutely aware of Strauss who himself had just written an opera based similarly on a biblical theme. Salome is a far more forward-looking piece than Ruth it is true, but Schumann’s more traditional approach to composition is highly effective. In the long first scene of Naomi, Wagnerians will wallow long in the majesty of the writing for sure and toast the genius of this unsung composer from Saxony.
Ruth had its first performance in Hamburg and performances soon followed around Germany and in Europe. It was taken up in America early on, too. We heard it first here in Britain at one of those huge music festivals in Sheffield in 1911. Henry Wood (knighted that year) conducted a cast of Agnes Nicholls, Louise Kirkby Lunn and Robert Radford. The CD we have here is conducted by Jörg-Peter Weigle and a marvellous cast at Berlin’s Philharmonie. The chorus is superb and the orchestra from the state of Brandenburg shine throughout. It is a captivating account of the score, well-rehearsed and deeply felt. I understand Weigle is a huge advocate of the work and has performed it before. One can tell.
If you don’t know the tale, I can set the scene before the work begins. A Jewish family, Elimelech, Naomi and their two sons have emigrated, in time of famine to the land of Moab. The sons marry Moabite women but in time all three males die. Naomi gives the girls leave to go back to their own people. She will return to Israel. They both love Naomi and will not let her leave alone. In time however one girl does go but Ruth is resolute. “Wherever you go, I shall go, wherever you live, I shall live. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God”. These immortal lines strike to the heart of Naomi and she allows Ruth to accompany her back to her people in Bethlehem.
Schumann begins the work with a short introduction including a theme for Ruth on clarinet. The first scene depicts the distraught Naomi in Moab. She sings of her loss. She is broken. She makes the decision to leave and go back to her homeland. Contralto Julie-Marie Sundal is magnificent. She has a rich smoky tone and excellent breath control in those long lines. At 10:17 Ruth’s theme signals her appearance. Polish soprano Marcelina Román is wonderful as she delivers the famous words of adoration and fealty to Naomi. Her voice is fresh and agile with the power to thrill to boot. As the scene comes to an end the music rises to a climax that makes me feel like I am back in the stiflingly hot Festspielhaus of a certain town in upper Franconia circa 2000.
The second scene is a choral tour de force. The good residents of Bethlehem become a hostile mob. Naomi left them, now good times have returned she comes crawling back. They are furious and Schumann writes declamatory fugues and employs a full palette of orchestral techniques to vividly portray this. Naomi cannot calm them, but Ruth does with her dignity and integrity. She sings Psalm 23 “The Lord is my shepherd”. What gloriously beautiful music Schumann writes here. You simply must hear it. Marcelina Román is lovely once more and is accompanied tenderly by the wonderful orchestra. The sound achieved by the technical team of Hein Laabs and Lukas Wilke is warm, natural and perfectly balanced.
Scene 3 “Auf dem Felde” is the longest scene. It is pastoral in theme. A gorgeous chorus of reapers cheerfully sing, winds trill and tambourines shake. Naomi and Ruth arrive at the beginning of the Barley harvest, and it is evidently a good year. Naomi agrees that Ruth should go out into the fields and glean. Perhaps this is the incident which inspired the beautiful lines in Keats’ Ode to a Nightingale:
“Perhaps the self-same song that found a path
Through the sad heart of Ruth, when, sick for home,
She stood in tears amid the alien corn.”
As an example of Schumann embellishing the text we are treated to a glorious passage where the reapers see migrating birds and are filled with longing to likewise take flight on wings and soar beyond their earthly realms and cares. The field where Ruth goes belongs to Boaz, a kinsman of Naomi on her late husband’s side. We first hear him at 13:46 after some murmurs in the orchestra not unlike those Siegfried might have heard in the forest of his youth.
Boaz is sung by German bass-baritone Hanno Müller-Brachmann who has a good discography of fine lieder and oratorio work. Readers may remember him as Papageno in the Abbado recording made twenty years ago (review). At first Schumann’s music makes us wary of him. He seems stern, sinister even. After he meets Ruth who recounts her tale, we can feel his love blossom and his voice melts. One can hardly blame him, such is the intoxicating wonder of Ruth’s monologue and Román’s rendition of it on this record. Schumann’s writing for Boaz sounds challenging with a wide range and octave leaps (sample from 23:30). Müller-Brachmann is tested but comes through unscathed in noble form. The great scene ends with him leading a prayer, taken up by the chorus. What a superb end to part 1. Six-part harmonic writing, transcendent in its beauty, stirring in its emotional effect. One can well imagine the happy effect on an audience hearing this music under the dome of the Royal Albert Hall on a Summer’s evening.
The fourth scene (the beginning of part 2) is a short scene between Naomi and Ruth taken from the source material. Ruth is instructed what to do next and the scene changes to the Threshing-floor where Boaz is asleep. The scene is actually topped and tailed with priestly calls to prayer. Jonas Böhm intones the Kaddish. At 3:40 the mystery of the Jewish temple is turned on its head and we are in a Mendelssohnian world of night and magic. At 6:15 the tone becomes prickly; wasps buzz around and crawling things are underfoot. It’s all great fun and very German Waldmusik. This delightful fairy-pantomime vanishes away at 10:35 and we join Ruth indoors.
The love scene is essential listening. This is as far as you can go in oratorio without it becoming opera. Needless to say, it is not canonically accurate, but I adore it, nonetheless. Ruth and Boaz’s dialogue is tender and trusting. From 18:00, Schumann is using the inspired poetry of the Song of Songs as the pair express their feelings to one another. This music has bowled me over in its sublime radiance and I urge you to try and hear it too. The scene is over too soon (Wagner would have milked it a little more I assure you) and an off-stage horn imitating the Shofar announces dawn. Like Tristan and Isolde, they ignore the warning the first time. Unlike them however, Ruth and Boaz awake to joy. A harp led hymn starts in the chorus.
The union of God, nature and a pure love characterise this last apotheosis. Like Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder or Mahler 8, it is all encompassing, all embracing and magnificent. Weigle paces the climax perfectly. Nothing is done for effect and the music’s grand scope and breadth are laid out expertly.
This recording of Georg Schumann’s Ruth is outstanding. It is the best recording I have heard all year, and I am so grateful to the artists and the label for making it possible for me to hear it. It is a live performance, but you would never know. The sound is perfection and there is no extraneous noise at all. No applause is heard. The notes are by Gottfried Eberle and are tremendous. I have used some of his insights in my review and the thoroughness of his analysis of the piece helped me a great deal in getting to know it. There were no texts or translations provided in the booklet that came with my CDs, which was a shame. However, I have since learnt that they are provided on the cpo website (perhaps the size of the booklet with them included would have been impractical), and if you buy the download version, they are included in the pdf that comes with it. I downloaded a vocal score from the excellent IMSLP website for free. Eberle’s notes will guide you too, as they did me. Don’t hesitate with this one.
Philip Harrison
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