Brahm's Magelone Lieder have, with a few exceptions, never been among his most popular, perhaps because they relate too closely to the somewhat scented romanticism of Tieck's novella. Performances of the cycle are rare, performances with narrator are still rarer, though I do remember one in London many years ago. The Fischer-Dieskau DG set with Barenboim provides a performance of the warmth and intelligence one would expect, and for many people who collect Brahm's songs this will be bound to suffice. But collectors who have enough German to follow the narration here (there are translations of the songs but not of the linking narration) will certainly get something extra; and it is perhaps not so surprising that the songs' sentimentality is diminished by their being set in the context where they belong. The opening introduction is spoken by Hermann Prey; thereafter the task is taken over by Annette Prey, who speaks it with a beautifully modulated voice and in a manner that reflects the tone of the prose without excessive emotion.
The outcome is remarkably enjoyable. Brahms, as Karl Schumann's intelligent sleeve-note points out (English and French as well as German), was experimenting with a Lieder cycle different from those of Schubert or Schumann (or, he might have added, Loewe, whose structural manner is different again). There is no narrative connexion between the songs; they are jewels (of varying glint, colour and value) set on the string of the narrative. When a song or ballad occurs in the novella, it is set by Brahms. I cannot pretend that this is a record which is likely to command a wide sale in this country, since it does depend on a knowledge of German and an affection for the world of early German Romanticism. Dr Schumann rightly compares the manner to that of Wieland's Oberon; and there were other writers of the day who liked to intersperse their prose tales with a liberal dose of verse. The convention marks even Wilhelm Meister, as all who enjoy Mignon's songs and the Harper's songs will know.
Prey sings the cycle beautifully, with (as their admirers would expect) somewhat less majestic intensity than Fischer-Dieskau but with greater directness and a simpler tenderness. His performance of the final song, the well-known ''Treue Liebe'', has a most touching affectingness at the end of this unusual but sympathetic and very well worthwhile enterprise. The recording of the spoken voice is fresh and close, with the singer and the excellent pianist, Helmut Deutsch, set a propriately a little farther back.'