Top 10 song-cycles (with piano)
Friday, May 2, 2014
Beethoven may have invented the song-cycle but Schubert raised it to extraordinary heights of expression and beauty
Beethoven, with his An die ferne Geliebte, may have invented the concept of the song-cycle (a group of songs linked by a theme, and usually a poet, that are performed as a sequence without a break), but the composer who raised it to extraordinary heights of expression and beauty was Schubert. Here are some of the greatest of all song-cycles with piano accompaniment in some of the finest recordings ever made.
No 1
Beethoven: An die ferne Geliebte
Matthias Goerne bar Alfred Brendel pf
'The Beethoven cycle moves in a steady progress not into the usual triumphant...' Read review
No 2
Schubert: Die schöne Müllerin
Werner Güra ten Jan Schultsz pf
'An absolutely enthralling account of the cycle on virtually every count...' Read review
No 3
Schubert: Winterreise
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau bar Jörg Demus pf
'On the verge of his fifth decade, the singer was in his absolute prime - and it shows. Indeed listening...' Read review
No 4
Schumann: Dichterliebe
Ian Bostridge ten Julius Drake pf
'It would be difficult to overpraise this issue given its manifold revelations concerning the setting of...' Read review
No 5
Fauré: La bonne chanson
Anne Sofie von Otter mez Bengt Forsberg pf
'She has one of the most beautiful voices of our time and is also one of...' Read review
No 6
Mussorgsky: Songs and Dances of Death
Gerald Finley bar Julius Drake pf
'Gerald Finley can do no wrong at present, and this Wigmore Hall Live offering...' Read review
No 7
Britten: Songs and Proverbs of William Blake
Gerald Finley bar Julius Drake pf
'Sternly, even fiercely standing its ground, the...' Read review
No 8
Mahler: Kindertotenlieder
Christianne Stotijn mez Joseph Breinl pf
'The soul of the disc is Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder in one of the more convincing...' Read review
No 9
Messiaen: Harawi
Hetna Regitza Bruun sop Kristoffer Hyldig pf
'Naxos’s recording equally reveals that Kristoffer Hyldig is a fine new...' Read review
No 10
Vaughan Williams: Songs of Travel
Dietrich Henschel bar Fritz Schwinghammer pf
'The first German baritone to record Vaughan...' Read review