Here we have something special. Olaf Bar, the young East German baritone who won the Walter Gruner Lieder prize at The City of London Festival in 1983 to universal acclaim, and has given two much-praised Wigmore Hall recitals, makes his recording debut with the cycles he offered at the second of those recitals, and confirms the high opinions held of him.
In performing these two well-tried works he is setting out to challenge many famous readings of the past, most of them—regrettably—at present unavailable. He meets the challenge readily with his clear, forward baritone, sensitive muscianship, and fine diction. His Dichterliebe is, if anything, understated, closer to Partridge (CfP) and Hagegard (RCA) than to Fischer-Dieskau (DG), and—I think—the better for it. The rejected lover should have a touch of vulnerability and reticence in his make-up, and not be too self-pitying. Bar feels the emotions of the songs very palpably but doesn't express them too overtly; words have their due but aren't over-emphasized, and his sense of line combined with superb breath control, is helped by tempos that are on the fast side. Above all, there is an immediacy in his response that recalls two of my favourite interpretations of the past—the early Souzay (Decca LXT2875, 3/54—nla) and even more the little-known version by Waechter and Brendel (Decca SXL2310, 6/62—nla), which demands to be reissued. Both exhibit the same kind of spontaneity and freshness I find so attractive in Bar.
Geoffrey Parsons, on the other hand, sounds a trifle matter-of-fact; the playing is always excellent, fiery in the strong songs, soft-grained in the sentimental ones, but a little wanting in the new perceptions observed by Eschenbach. On the reverse, he seems more on the edge of his seat in support of Bar, who enters eagerly into the fantasy world of Eichendorff, so graphically seconded by Schumann.
Bar, again showing his eager relationship with the texts, is adept at catching the nocturnal mystery of the cycle. ''Mondnacht'' has a refined legato, the subtle evocation of timeless sadness is found in ''Auf einer Burg'', dynamics are perfectly controlled in ''Zwielicht''.
I won't deny that Fischer-Dieskau's is the more positive, personal reading of both sets of songs, more varied in tonal colour too, but listening to them side by side, I often found I admired the comparative reticence of Bar the more, melodrama quite eschewed but none of the music's significance overlooked. The recording is faultless, but if EMI are to print texts and translations in such small type I wish they would use a more readable typeface.AB