Love Songs
Robert Schumann (1810-1856)
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
Diana Damrau (soprano), Jonas Kaufmann (tenor), Helmut Deutsch (piano)
rec. live, 13 April 2022, Grosse Saal, Musikverein, Vienna, Austria
Reviewed in surround sound.
C Major 766008 DVD [101]
This recital from Vienna’s Musikverein brings us two great duos: singers Diana Damrau and Jonas Kaufmann, and the two friends and Lieder composers Robert Schumann and Johannes Brahms. The booklet note adds pianist Helmut Deutsch and Robert’s wife Clara Schumann to the mix to make two trios. The audience, largely unseen in the darkened hall, are in Covid-era masks, but it was clearly a great occasion in April 2022, well worth preserving in this format. I cannot resist quoting the C Major label’s fulsome publicity (with which it is nonetheless largely hard to disagree):
“They explore love’s myriad dimensions through soul-stirring solos and mesmerizing duets in a journey through a kaleidoscope of emotions, from reverie and yearning to the bliss of fulfilment, tempered by moments of heartache, resignation, and sacrifice, charming and moving.”
The repertoire is as wide-ranging as that implies. The programme at the end of the review testifies. The net has been cast widely – see the list of opus numbers. Sometimes just one song from an opus has been selected, often one of the best-known. Among other things, this is a celebration of the German Lied at its mid-to-late 19th century peak (Schumann’s Op. 25 is from 1840, Brahms’s Op. 96 from 1886). There were Richard Strauss, Hugo Wolf and Gustav Mahler to come, of course, but these were the foundations, an achievement to be followed if never surpassed.
The recital is a sequence of six groups of songs, three devoted to Schumann and three to Brahms, alternating between the two composers. Breaks for applause occur after each group in the usual recital fashion. The first Schumann group begins and ends with two of his greatest songs: Widmung [dedication] Op. 25/1, and Stille Tränen [silent tears] Op. 35/10. Kaufmann sings superbly, and is notably ardent in the latter with a ringing top note. In between, Damrau takes her first song to settle slightly but is in her sweetest voice all along, from when she sings her next song, another famous one, Der Nussbaum [the walnut tree] Op. 25/3.
Damrau acts and sings that song to Kauffman. The singers interact like that all the time. The audience observes their courtship or tryst whenever the text supports it, especially in the duets but not only there. Especially delightful is the second half, when the duets are more frequent. The singers achieve an intimate honeyed mezza-voce in Schumann’s Trägodie Op. 65/3. The best known of all the duets, Brahms’s Vergebliches Ständchen [a serenade in vain] Op. 84/4, becomes here a mini-romantic comedy of great charm. No wonder the composer, rarely content with his own work, said he would trade all his other songs to keep this one.
The second group, given to Brahms, is no less satisfying than the opening Schumann set. Kaufmann is compelling in Meerfarht [sea voyage] Op. 96/4, on restless 6/8 waves, with his notable outcry of trostlos [forlorn]. Damrau too is impressive in the following early song, Anklänge [echoes] Op. 7/3. I could add to the list of especially enjoyable items, but each composer sequence in both halves has several highlights, and there are no misfires at all. The programme offers a consistently high standard of artistry, perhaps inspired by the location and its directness of contact with a sophisticated German-speaking audience – no Wigmore Hall regulars with heads buried in a booklet of text and translation. The formal listed programme ends with a pair of Brahms duets; the three encores are also duets, two by Schumann and one by Brahms.
It is notable that the Brahms sequences ignore Max Harrison’s claim in his book on Brahms’s songs – that he often designed the published order to be a sung sequence. The singers instead mix them up to suit their own recital plan. One might assume that there was a three-way planning process: each singer especially wanted their individual favourites included. The booklet claims, however, that pianist Helmut Deutsch planned it all. Well, he has known and accompanied both singers for many years, and neither needs a score at any point. But then they had presented this programme on a European tour of eleven cities before reaching Vienna. Helmut Deutsch is, as ever, a matchless accompanist, unfailingly supportive and responsive. He often keeps the concert moving along with only the briefest of pauses between songs.
Suffice to say that the singing is excellent, and the programme satisfying and varied. There is a palpable sense of a fine musical occasion caught on the wing. Both singers, now in their mid-fifties, will soon be approaching veteran status. So, this may be the way to hear the very best of them live, even more than in their many operatic roles sung to acclaim around the world. Jonas Kaufmann especially is now a far superior Lieder singer to the artist who recorded a slightly underwhelming Die Schöne Müllerin live in 2009.
The recording and filming are well up to C Major’s high standard, but the booklet is the usual disappointment. There are brief notes in English and German on the performers and composers, but nothing at all on the songs themselves, not even titles and their translations. There are, perhaps predictably, no texts. After all, the sung texts are in the clear and unobtrusive subtitles, essential for full enjoyment by viewers with no German. It is also easy to take the recital in sections, one half at a sitting, or even pausing between the composer song groups. Once the programme is up on your screen, and you have set the sound and subtitles you want from the opening menu, you will be transported to a Lieder masterclass, seen and heard from the best seat in the Musikverein.
Roy Westbrook
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Technical details
Format: HDTV 16:9
Disc format: DVD 9
Picture: NTSC
Audio: PCM Stereo and DTS 5.0
Sung in German with subtitles in German, English, Korean and Japanese
Booklet: English, German (no texts or translations)
A coproduction of UNITEL, ORF III and ZDF in cooperation with Arte and Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna
The programme
Robert Schumann
Myrthen, Op. 25
No.1. Widmung
No.4. Jemand
Spanisches Liederspiel, Op. 74
No.7. Geständnis
Myrthen, Op. 25
No.3. Der Nussbaum
Drei Gesänge, Op. 83
No.1. Resignation
Lieder und Gesänge, Op. 51
No.5. Liebeslied
Zwölf Gedichte, Op. 35
No.10. Stille Tränen
Johannes Brahms
Fünf Gesänge, Op. 72
No.4. Verzagen
Sechs Lieder, Op. 85
No.6. In Waldeseinsamkeit
Sechs Lieder, Op. 97
No.1. Nachtigall
Acht Lieder und Gesänge, Op. 57
No.4. Ach, wende diesen Blick
No.3. Es träumte mir
Vier Lieder, Op. 96
No.4. Meerfahrt
Sechs Gesänge, Op. 7
No.3. Anklänge
Robert Schumann
Spanisches Liederspiel, Op. 74
No.4. In der Nacht
Romanzen und Balladen, Vol. IV, Op. 64
No.3/1. Tragödie – Entflieh mir und sei mein Weib
No.3/2. Tragödie – Es fiel ein Reif in der Frühlingsnacht
No.3/3. Tragödie – Auf ihrem Grab, da steht eine Linde
Mädchenlieder, Op. 103
No.4. An den Abendstern
Johannes Brahms
Fünf Romanzen und Lieder, Op. 84
No.4. Vergebliches Ständchen
Sechs Lieder, Op. 86
No.1. Therese
Acht Lieder und Gesänge, Op. 58
No.4. O komme, holde Sommernacht
Fünf Gesänge, Op. 71
No.3. Geheimnis
Vier Lieder, Op. 96
No.2. Wir wandelten
Robert Schumann
Vier Duette, Op. 78
No.2. Er und sie
Minnespiel, Op. 101
No.4. Mein schöner Stern
Myrthen, Op. 25
No.9. Lied der Suleika
Fünf Lieder, Op. 96
No.3. Ihre Stimme
Minnespiel, Op. 101
No.2. Liebster, deine Worte
Vier Gesänge, Op. 142
No.2. Lehn’ deine Wang an meine Wang
Fünf Lieder, Op. 40
No.5. Verratene Liebe
Johannes Brahms
Drei Duette, Op. 20
No.2. Weg der Liebe
Lieder und Gesänge, Op. 63
No.4. An die Tauben
Fünf Lieder, Op. 47
No.5. Die Liebende schreibt
Five Lieder, Op. 49
No.3. Sehnsucht
Neun Lieder und Gesänge, Op. 63
No.5. Meine Liebe ist grün
Sechs Lieder, Op. 86
No.5. Versunken
Vier Lieder, Op. 43
No.1. Von ewiger Liebe
Vier Duette, Op. 61
No.4. Boten der Liebe
Robert Schumann
Vier Duette, Op. 34
No.3. Unterm Fenster
Lieder-Album für die Jugend, Op. 79
No.16. Das Glück
Johannes Brahms
49 Deutsche Volkslieder, WoO 33
No.6. Da unten im Tale
A summary of opus numbers
Johannes Brahms: Op. 7, Op. 20, Op.43, Op.47, Op.49, Op. 57, Op. 587, Op. 61, Op. 63, Op. 70, Op. 84, Op. 86, Op. 96, WoO 33
Robert Schumann: Op. 25, Op. 34, Op. 35, Op. 40, Op. 51, Op. 64, Op. 74, Op. 78, Op. 79, Op. 83, Op. 96, Op.101, Op. 103, Op. 142
