Tenor Christoph Prégardien has been a strong supporter of instrumental arrangements of lieder accompaniments; for Winterreise alone, he has made recordings with three different instrumental combinations, as well as a traditional version with fortepiano. On this 2011 Challenge Classics album, accompanied by the Nuremburg-based ensembleKONTRASTE, he brings that interest to songs by Schumann, Mahler, and Wilhelm Killmayer. The instrumentations, which include flute, clarinet, string quintet, piano, harmonium, and percussion, ...
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Tenor Christoph Prégardien has been a strong supporter of instrumental arrangements of lieder accompaniments; for Winterreise alone, he has made recordings with three different instrumental combinations, as well as a traditional version with fortepiano. On this 2011 Challenge Classics album, accompanied by the Nuremburg-based ensembleKONTRASTE, he brings that interest to songs by Schumann, Mahler, and Wilhelm Killmayer. The instrumentations, which include flute, clarinet, string quintet, piano, harmonium, and percussion, are based on the ensemble Schoenberg used in his arrangements of Mahler's Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, which conclude the album. Marcus Maria Reissenberger's arrangements of 12 Schumann songs and of four movements from Waldszenen open up the piano part with fresh, understated, and idiomatic sonorities. In some songs the change is extremely subtle; in "Mondschaft," for example, the piano part is unchanged, and quiet, sustained string chords provide occasional colorful harmonic...
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