Schumann Das Paradies und die Peri etc
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Robert Schumann
Label: DG
Magazine Review Date: 12/1995
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 112
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: 445 875-2GH2
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| (Das) Paradies und die Peri |
Robert Schumann, Composer
Dresden State Opera Chorus Elisabeth Wilke, Contralto (Female alto) Florence Quivar, Contralto (Female alto) Giuseppe Sinopoli, Conductor Heidi Grant Murphy, Soprano Julie Faulkner, Soprano Keith Lewis, Tenor Robert Hale, Bass-baritone Robert Schumann, Composer Robert Swensen, Tenor Staatskapelle Dresden |
| Overture, Scherzo and Finale |
Robert Schumann, Composer
Giuseppe Sinopoli, Conductor Robert Schumann, Composer Staatskapelle Dresden |
Author: Joan Chissell
How gratified Schumann would be at today's great new interest in his larger-scale choral works, not least the first, Das Paradies und die Peri, of which he was justifiably so proud. It was Armin Jordan and his Swiss forces who first introduced it to the British CD catalogue, a Gramophone Award-winning Erato issue (4/90), sadly now deleted (hopefully only temporarily). However, Schumann lovers still have four versions from which to choose, all of them, in different ways, sufficiently characterful to win the work new friends. The latest, a full-bodied, forwardly reproduced recording in Dresden's Semperoper, has the throb of a live event – plus one or two minor imperfections of ensemble (such as sluggish choral entries at the start of ''Weh, weh'') and of balance that might have prompted re-takes in a studio.
Julie Faulkner is a pleasing Peri, touching in this fallen angel's pathos, and in triumph soaring as effortlessly over choir and orchestra as Edda Moser in Henryk Czyz's EMI reissue. But neither she nor Sinopoli bring the same sense of wonderment to the exotic mystery of ''Ich kenne die Urnen'' as Edith Wiens and Jordan, with their slower tempo and more delicately imaginative orchestral colouring, on the Erato version. Again, as five years ago with the graphic Gerd Albrecht, I found very much to enjoy from the mellifluous Keith Lewis, a tellingly expressive yet never over-operatic tenor narrator. And the lyrical warmth of Robert Hale as the penitent sinner (and the baritone soloist in ''Jetzt sank des Abends goldner Schein'') removes all danger of the unctuous or lugubrious in Part 3. Florence Quivar's compassionate Angel is slightly marred by obtrusive vibrato, and her ''Verlassener Jungling'' in Part 2 is draggingly slow. All supporting soloists are good. Though not so much on their toes as Jordan's Swiss Genii of the Nile, the Dresden choir respond well to heartier challenges – as also to the hushed holiness of ''O heilge Tranen'' near the end. Sinopoli and the Staatskapelle Dresden are rarely the equal of Jordan and the Suisse Romande Orchestra in subtlety of shading and phrasing. But response is generously open-hearted. The booklet includes the text in four languages, with a discerning new English translation by LS.
As with Czyz's strongly cast (with one exception), vividly reproduced and highly competitive mid-price Dusseldorf reissue, the second disc includes an infrequently heard extra – here, Schumann's Op. 52, which, because of the lack of a slow movement, he declined to call a symphony. Perhaps more could have been done to disguise the Scherzo's repetitive patterning. But the outer movements are full of spirit.'
Julie Faulkner is a pleasing Peri, touching in this fallen angel's pathos, and in triumph soaring as effortlessly over choir and orchestra as Edda Moser in Henryk Czyz's EMI reissue. But neither she nor Sinopoli bring the same sense of wonderment to the exotic mystery of ''Ich kenne die Urnen'' as Edith Wiens and Jordan, with their slower tempo and more delicately imaginative orchestral colouring, on the Erato version. Again, as five years ago with the graphic Gerd Albrecht, I found very much to enjoy from the mellifluous Keith Lewis, a tellingly expressive yet never over-operatic tenor narrator. And the lyrical warmth of Robert Hale as the penitent sinner (and the baritone soloist in ''Jetzt sank des Abends goldner Schein'') removes all danger of the unctuous or lugubrious in Part 3. Florence Quivar's compassionate Angel is slightly marred by obtrusive vibrato, and her ''Verlassener Jungling'' in Part 2 is draggingly slow. All supporting soloists are good. Though not so much on their toes as Jordan's Swiss Genii of the Nile, the Dresden choir respond well to heartier challenges – as also to the hushed holiness of ''O heilge Tranen'' near the end. Sinopoli and the Staatskapelle Dresden are rarely the equal of Jordan and the Suisse Romande Orchestra in subtlety of shading and phrasing. But response is generously open-hearted. The booklet includes the text in four languages, with a discerning new English translation by LS.
As with Czyz's strongly cast (with one exception), vividly reproduced and highly competitive mid-price Dusseldorf reissue, the second disc includes an infrequently heard extra – here, Schumann's Op. 52, which, because of the lack of a slow movement, he declined to call a symphony. Perhaps more could have been done to disguise the Scherzo's repetitive patterning. But the outer movements are full of spirit.'
Schumann Das Paradies und die Peri etc
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