Christian Gerhaher and Gerold Huber have been working on the recording of all Schumann songs since 2017.
The result is an epoch-making recording on eleven CDs.
That is strange. But it is only with Robert Schumann that he thinks “every song is great”. It is a career-long occupation that made Christian Gerhaher a “Schumannian”, as he puts it. He considers the “Faust scenes” to be the best setting of the material, and among the more than 300 songs there may be one that he doesn't like very much. “A good cut,” as the baritone recently said during a Schumann Week at Schloss Elmau. In this respect, this recording of all the songs was not at all surprising. Whereby you have to define “all” more precisely: There are 299, a few are missing.
Since the beginning of 2017 Gerhaher has been working on this project with his symbiotic permanent piano partner Gerold Huber, supported by handpicked singers.
What is now available with the box of eleven CDs is nothing less than an epoch-making song recording, and that doesn't just mean Schumann's oeuvre.
The pieces were grouped into 45 cycles.
Some are well-known, others, thanks to Gerhaher and Huber's considerations, come together to form a series based on content and composition.
Schumann suits Gerhaher best
Naturally, it is impossible and also makes little sense to appreciate all of this here precisely. It is a long adventure journey that everyone can embark on for themselves - with great benefit and enjoyment. But there are basic lines, similarities: From each of Gerhaher's sung songs you can see how much this composer suits him. Because Schumann does not, like Schubert or Mahler, aim for a statement that is often immediate and emotionally immediately comprehensible. Schumann's double and triple flooring, which disguises itself with only apparent romantic courtesy, prohibits the interpreter from pure identification. Gerhaher, who would call this a soul striptease, is a horror anyway.
So none of these are mini-operas or mini-dramas, no merely situational descriptions of states or reflections.
Schumann demands other things: the top view, stepping back (without cool distancing), weighing up, generally the power of observation of the singing ego, which eludes the happening rather than throwing itself into it.
Just listen to an ostensibly lively piece like “The boy with the miracle horn” - with Gerhaher the folklore only echoes, is “only” the starting point for his singing.
“Talismans” do without any religious pathos.
And sometimes interpretation for him arises not only from text interpretation, but also from the rhythmization of syllables and words.
For example in the song “Räthsel”, which is not a playful quiz here, but rather humor on a second level.
Gerold Huber bears the main burden of this edition
It is noticeable that Gerhaher chooses different accesses, masking himself for the different cycles, as it were. In the Liederkreis op. 39 on Eichendorff poems, he moves away from the declamatory, sings differently, more in line, with a perfect legato (precisely because he does not sacrifice the word for the sound). Gerhaher and Huber recorded the hit of “Dichterliebe” a second time for this box. One notices a refinement, the longer experience with these pieces, but also (perhaps due to the frequent singing in concert) a dodging into overinterpretation.
Gerold Huber bears the brunt of this edition, he sat at the piano for all 299 songs. And it is captivating how subtle, unpretentious and knowledgeable he adapts to the respective situations: to the pieces, but also to the other singers involved. On the still youthful soprano Sibylla Rubens, for example, on Wiebke Lehmkuhl with her character mezzo, on the finely nuanced soprano Christina Landshamer or on Martin Mitterrutzner with his slag-free, flexible tenor. And sometimes they also appear together, such as in the “Spanisches Liederspiel” or in the “Spanische Liebesliedern”, which is a special listening pleasure - especially in the variety of the voice cuts. Almost as if by the way, reference recordings of these cycles are successful. Incidentally, also with "Frauenliebe und Leben". There is hardly a female soloistwho sings these songs like soprano Julia Kleiter: without ostensible enthusiasm, classy, text-conscious, crystal clear in tone and yet so deeply immersed.
Christian Gerhaher and his colleagues are not the first to venture into Schumann's marvel.
Of course, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau has already done this, but considered far fewer songs.
And pianist Graham Johnson once gathered a number of singers around him for his encyclopedic project.
Comparisons may therefore be limping.
But in this complexity and artistic collegiality, the judgment is daring, no one has yet interpreted the songs.
A Schumannian like Gerhaher has conquered his personal summit.
Which leads to a disturbing consideration: what is to come next?
Robert Schumann:
All songs (11 CDs).
Christian Gerhaher and others, Gerold Huber (Sony Classical).