KRENEK Reisebuch aus den österreichischen Alpen
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Alexander von Zemlinsky, Ernst Krenek
Genre:
Vocal
Label: Hyperion
Magazine Review Date: AW16
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 59
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: CDA68158
Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
Reisebuch aus den österreichischen Alpen |
Ernst Krenek, Composer
Ernst Krenek, Composer Florian Boesch, Baritone Roger Vignoles, Piano |
(7) Lieder, Movement: In der Ferne (wds. R Prutz) |
Alexander von Zemlinsky, Composer
Alexander von Zemlinsky, Composer Florian Boesch, Baritone Roger Vignoles, Piano |
Wandl' ich im Wald des Abends |
Alexander von Zemlinsky, Composer
Alexander von Zemlinsky, Composer Florian Boesch, Baritone Roger Vignoles, Piano |
(7) Lieder, Movement: Die schlanke Wasserlilie (wds. H. Heine) |
Alexander von Zemlinsky, Composer
Alexander von Zemlinsky, Composer Florian Boesch, Baritone Roger Vignoles, Piano |
(7) Lieder, Movement: Waldesgespräch (wds. J von Eichendorff) |
Alexander von Zemlinsky, Composer
Alexander von Zemlinsky, Composer Florian Boesch, Baritone Roger Vignoles, Piano |
Author: Tim Ashley
The score is comparably allusive, poring over musical tradition while seeking to extend it. There are repeated echoes of Schubert, Schumann and Mendelssohn, though Krenek cannily avoids direct quotation. The piano writing, meanwhile, sometimes takes on polyphonic overtones that peer back though Brahms to Bach. The harmonic language can be harsh: Krenek keeps within the bounds of tonality but irony and anger often lead to dissonances as fierce as anything in Schoenberg or Berg.
Florian Boesch and Roger Vignoles gave a revelatory performance of the work at the Wigmore Hall in January 2015, returning to it in the studio last October, and it would be fair to say that Boesch has done nothing finer on disc. This is exceptional Lieder singing, fusing line, text and dynamics into an indivisible whole, all of it delivered with a conversational intimacy that is often breathtaking. The emotional ambivalences are finely projected, as sadness, dismay and anger are repeatedly undercut by self-deprecating wit and humour. The final song equates travel and wandering with the essential rootlessness of the human condition: Boesch sings it in a mood of resigned calm, beneath which one still detects a last quizzical twinkle of irony. Vignoles, meanwhile, matches his every shift of mood with playing of great control, refinement and subtlety. It’s an outstanding achievement and hard to follow, but as a filler there are four early songs by Zemlinsky at his most darkly Romantic, all of them quite beautifully done.
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