Fischer-Dieskau, Britten, Schubert - what an amazing coming-together of creative talent! Predictably it produces a truly unique occasion (nowhere else will you find this combination). Words fail one to describe the extraordinary and thrilling act of re-creation by singer and pianist in a programme of strenuous, demanding songs. Happily you'll find Graham Johnson in the booklet describe just why these readings, daringly bold, fascinatingly spontaneous and alive in every sense, so capture one's imagination. Suffice it to say that you are unlikely to forget quickly the frisson of, in succession, Gruppe aus dem Tartarus, Der Wanderer (the wonderful Schlegel setting), An die Freunde (a Mayrhofer setting unjustly neglected), not to overlook the next two Mayrhofer settings - quite electrifying.
Shirley-Quirk manages to stand up to this comparison with his great coeval at the same festival (1972) ; his and Britten's account of the sombre Michelangelo Lieder suggest all the grave eloquence of Wolf's settings. The account of Schubert's Der Hirt auf dem Felsen was a late substitution at the festival: you would hardly know it from the confidence of soprano (Harper, on gleaming, communicative form), clarinettist (the tangy Thea King) and pianist. As Johnson avers, the reading reminds us, in its serious import, that this is a late, more inward piece than some recent interpreters have had us believe.
The rest of these issues are devoted to the familiar and welcome Pears-Britten partnership. Far too few recordings exist of the pair in Lieder, apart from the famous song-cycles, so the second of these two CDs and three Wolf songs on the first add invaluably to the stock. As ever, Britten's interpretations of both Schubert and Wolf prove at once revelatory and stimulating, his re-creations constantly making one think anew about the technique and meaning of the piano parts. To listen to his playing in Ganymed, so supple and subtle in its phrasing and rubato, or to the wholly individual touch and perfect timing in Denk es, o Seele!, could and should be a lesson to any aspiring accompanist, though I much doubt that he or she could quite equal Britten's irreplaceable timbre, so soft, yet so present.
In the 1969 Blythburgh recital, it takes Pears the first group of three songs to settle; in any case, Auflosung really belongs to a bass or mezzo, but on reaching the group of four Goethe settings he has attained his considerable best, which means refined legato, long-breathed phrasing (that demanding phrase that ends Ganymed taken in a single span) and acute articulation of the text. By 1972 at Snape the vibrations have loosened and there are signs of strain. Moreover, Pears - excellent as he may be - isn't quite in the class, among tenors, of Erb, Patzak or Schreier as a Wolf interpreter, but it is good to have the en- dearing trio of Christmas songs on the first CD.
At Blythburgh, the partnership added importantly to their discography of Britten's own songs by offering the early cycle On this Island and performing it, predictably, with vocal and instrumental insights available on few other versions - the 'Nocturne' is particularly remarkable in voice and piano. At Snape the programme ended with six Shakespeare settings, each one a gem, Pears now totally relaxed singing in his own tongue, Arne's 'Come away, death' and Warlock's Take, O take those lips away most moving.
The remastering is all excellently managed, but most thanks is due to the original BBC production team for catching voices and piano so truthfully. Johnson's and Roger Vignoles's notes partially console us for the absence of texts and translations (this, at full price).'