Etcetera: Thomas Oliemans & Malcolm Martineau — Schubert: Schwanengesang — Audio CD

Brand new! Factory packaged! As pictured! Buy with confidence!

Product Details:

• Product Type: Audio CD
• Brand / Label: Etcetera Records
• Composer: Franz Peter Schubert
• Artists: Thomas Oliemans (baritone), Malcolm Martineau (piano)
• Release Year: 2010
• Catalog Number: KTC 1420
• UPC: 8711801102917
• Genre: Classical
• Style: Romantic, Lieder, Art Song

Product Features

• Format: CD
• Discs: 1
• Tracks: 18
• Total runtime: approx. 68:55
• Languages: sung in German; booklet liner notes in English and French, German lyrics with English translation
• Recording: All Saints Church, East Finchley, London, March 2010
• Condition: Brand New, Factory Sealed

Overview

Schwanengesang — "swan song" — gathers the songs Schubert wrote in the final months of his life, published after his death in 1828. It isn't a cycle in the strict sense; the publisher assembled it. But heard together, these fourteen settings, plus a few companions here, form one of the great farewells in all of song.

Dutch baritone Thomas Oliemans sings with the intensity that put him on the international stage. His voice is warm and direct, and he leans into the darkness of the late Heine settings — "Der Doppelgänger," "Die Stadt," "Am Meer" — without losing the lyric grace of the earlier Rellstab songs like "Ständchen" and "Frühlingssehnsucht."

Malcolm Martineau, one of the most sought-after accompanists of his generation, partners him with characteristic subtlety. This program also folds in four Schulze settings, deepening the portrait of Schubert's last creative year, and closes with the bittersweet "Die Taubenpost."

This is the sealed Etcetera edition, recorded in a London church with the clarity the music demands. A full-texted booklet makes it as rewarding to follow as to hear.

Interesting Facts

• "Schwanengesang" was assembled and titled by publisher Tobias Haslinger after Schubert's death; Schubert never conceived it as a unified cycle.
• The Heine settings, especially "Der Doppelgänger," are among the most harmonically forward-looking songs Schubert ever wrote.
• This program adds four Schulze settings (D 834, 882, 884, 853) to the standard Rellstab, Heine and Seidl groups.
• Baritone Thomas Oliemans has sung at Covent Garden and La Monnaie and worked with conductors including Riccardo Chailly and Kent Nagano.
• Pianist Malcolm Martineau has accompanied many of the great singers of his era, from Janet Baker to Bryn Terfel.
• The album was recorded in March 2010 at All Saints Church, East Finchley, a favored London recording venue.

Track Listing

Lieder after poems by Ludwig Rellstab (D 957)

1. Liebesbotschaft — 3:11
2. Kriegers Ahnung — 4:54
3. Frühlingssehnsucht — 3:37
4. Ständchen — 3:44
5. Aufenthalt — 3:04
6. In der Ferne — 6:24
7. Abschied — 4:34

Lieder after poems by Ernst Konrad Friedrich Schulze

1. Im Walde, D 834 — 6:33
2. Im Frühling, D 882 — 4:44
3. Über Wildemann, D 884 — 1:53
4. Auf der Bruck, D 853 — 3:24

Lieder after poems by Heinrich Heine (D 957)

1. Der Atlas — 2:02
2. Ihr Bild — 3:08
3. Das Fischermädchen — 2:30
4. Die Stadt — 2:46
5. Am Meer — 4:06
6. Der Doppelgänger — 4:14

Lied after a poem by Johann Gabriel Seidl (D 965)

1. Die Taubenpost — 5:28

Publishers

Released by Etcetera Records in 2010, catalog KTC 1420. Recorded at All Saints Church, East Finchley, London. Booklet with English and French notes and German texts with English translation.

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