Matthias Goerne - Im Abendrot
Label: DG Catalog: 4860274 Format: CD Matthias Goerne, Seong-Jin ChoBaritone Matthias Goerne is one of the most renowned lied singers in the world. Now, together with pianist Seong-Jin Cho, he releases the album "Im Abendrot" with late romantic works by Richard Wagner, Hans Pfitzner and Richard Strauss. Following his highly acclaimed Beethoven album, Goerne thus continues his series of recordings with great young pianists. "The experience of exploring songs that speak so spiritedly of what it means to be human with a young performer like Seong-Jin Cho is quite extraordinary," Goerne says. "These works are by three composers whose lifetimes overlapped, but who nevertheless differ in many ways in their music. Pianistic expressiveness and musicality are not enough for this repertoire; the sound must be led in technical perfection by the pianist." The album opens with Wagner's Wesendonck Lieder, five songs from the late 1850s inspired by the composer's affection for the writer and poet Mathilde Wesendonck. Other highlights of the album include "Ruhe, meine Seele!" and "Morgen!" - the first and last from a set of four songs Strauss wrote as a wedding gift for his wife, soprano Pauline de Ahna. Also, Strauss's enchanting "Dream through the Twilight" as well as Pfitzner's "Abendrot" and his settings of poems by Heinrich Heine and Joseph von Eichendorff, among others. Eichendorff also wrote the lines to "Im Abendrot", which the 84-year-old Strauss set to music in 1948 for his Four Last Songs; the song forms the album's haunting conclusion. Price: $18.98 |