Vanitas: Songs by Schubert, Beethoven & Rihm | Alpha ALPHA646

Vanitas: Songs by Schubert, Beethoven & Rihm

£14.49

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Label: Alpha

Cat No: ALPHA646

Format: CD

Number of Discs: 1

Genre: Vocal/Choral

Release Date: 13th November 2020

Contents

About

Like the paintings of the Flemish Baroque painters, the ‘vanities’ presented here can be approached in two ways: on the one hand, as manifestations of doubts and anxieties at the fragility of human life; on the other, as delights to be savoured without moderation, celebrating earthly life through the senses and the pleasure that human beings can derive from them.

After two critically acclaimed recordings each for Alpha, the baritone Georg Nigl and the pianist Olga Pashchenko explore the tortuous meanders of the human soul with vocal works by Schubert (an ‘existentialist’ composer if ever there was one), Beethoven (whose torments hardly need stressing) and the contemporary composer Wolfgang Rihm, whose highly expressionistic Jakob Lenz (ALPHA717) Nigl performed on stage in 2019. His piece Vermischter Traum, here given its world premiere, is dedicated to the Austrian singer.

Sound/Video



Reviews

We’ve seen Beethoven’s An die ferne Geliebte appear in a variety of couplings over the past year but this is surely the most original ... Here Georg Nigl juxtaposes it with a striking new cycle by Wolfgang Rihm at the centre of a programme bookended by sequences of Schubert. ... All in all, this is a beguiling, intelligent and supremely sensitive recital, which continues to resonate long after its last note has died away. Highly recommended.  Hugo Shirley
Gramophone February 2021
Nigl’s performance is beautifully controlled, suave almost; his soft-grained voice wraps itself easily around Rihm’s smoothly contoured vocal lines
The Guardian
Gramophone Editor's Choice

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