There are many supremely beautiful volumes in Graham Johnson's Schubert edition -- Fassbaender's, Popp's, Ameling's, Hampson's, Bostridge's -- but this Goethe Schubertiad is as supremely beautiful as the best of them. Of course, Goethe always brought out the best in the passionate young composer and his Goethe songs are among the greatest of Schubert's songs. And, as one has come to expect, Johnson has grouped them to greatest effect and has engaged singers singularly appropriate to the material. But the pairing of ...
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There are many supremely beautiful volumes in Graham Johnson's Schubert edition -- Fassbaender's, Popp's, Ameling's, Hampson's, Bostridge's -- but this Goethe Schubertiad is as supremely beautiful as the best of them. Of course, Goethe always brought out the best in the passionate young composer and his Goethe songs are among the greatest of Schubert's songs. And, as one has come to expect, Johnson has grouped them to greatest effect and has engaged singers singularly appropriate to the material. But the pairing of Christine Schafer with Goethe's Mignon Lieder was inspired: her clear soprano and direct expression seems to be wholly at one with the doomed Mignon. Schafer is less interpreting songs than becoming a character. And following Schafer's heart-rending performance of Mignon's "Sehnsucht" (D. 481) with the warm-hearted performance of "Sehnsucht" (D. 656) by the men of the London Schubert Chorale was brilliant, drawing the audience from endless longing to endless consolation. And following that...
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