Matthias Goerne, Seong-Jin Cho – Im Abendrot: Songs by Wagner, Pfitzner, Strauss (2021) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Matthias Goerne, Seong-Jin Cho – Im Abendrot: Songs by Wagner, Pfitzner, Strauss (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:03:58 minutes | 1,11 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Deutsche Grammophon (DG)

After his critically-acclaimed & award-winning “Beethoven recording” with pianist Jan Lisiecki baritone Matthias Goerne continues with his next album on Deutsche Grammophon This time featuring DG exclusive artist Seong-Jin Cho. With Beethoven, Matthias Goerne and Jan Lisiecki considered the dawn of the Lied. Here, accompanied by Seong-Jin Cho, the baritone contemplates its twilight – an unending, almost century-long twilight.

Shrouded in an awkward acoustic which is hardly customary for Berlin’s Teldex Studio, the latest recording by Matthias Goerne and Korean pianist Seong-Jin Cho (First Prize in the 2015 Chopin Competition) is devoted to twilight Lieder by Wagner, Pfitzner and Richard Strauss.

Twilight (“Abendrot” in German), an essential component of German Romanticism, expresses the deep, dark side of the human soul, often in a tragic or dramatic tone, barely tempered by an oppressive light that prematurely withers the flowers of memory.

The famous Wesendonck-Lieder, for which Wagner was inspired by an impossible love whose harmonies foreshadow those of Tristan and Isolde, find in Matthias Goerne’s deep voice a performer to equal their inspiration. The German baritone has long been a supporter of the music of Hanz Pfitzner, a contemporary of Richard Strauss who is often rather academic for Latin ears. What a pleasure to discover this bouquet of Lieder, which evoke the ever-renewed miracle of nature, and in which seasons and landscapes are robed in strong nostalgia.

Richard Strauss follows through the metaphors of the sun: darkening (Traum durch die Dämmerung), promising great future joys (Morgen) or eternal rest (Ruhe, meine Seele!); dreams of peace and beauty (Freundliche Vision) and the weariness of a fading life (Im Abendrot). This album reflects the black diamond of melancholy, and its three composers complement each other delightfully. – François Hudry

Tracklist:
01. Matthias Goerne – I. Der Engel (02:41)
02. Matthias Goerne – II. Stehe still (03:24)
03. Matthias Goerne – III. Im Treibhaus (05:53)
04. Matthias Goerne – IV. Schmerzen (02:20)
05. Matthias Goerne – V. Träume (04:22)
06. Matthias Goerne – I. Sehnsucht (03:23)
07. Matthias Goerne – VI. Wasserfahrt (01:31)
08. Matthias Goerne – I. Es glänzt so schön die sinkende Sonne (02:56)
09. Matthias Goerne – II. Ist der Himmel darum im Lenz so blau (01:31)
10. Matthias Goerne – III. An die Mark (05:49)
11. Matthias Goerne – IV. Abendrot (03:22)
12. Matthias Goerne – II. Nachts (03:41)
13. Matthias Goerne – I. Stimme der Sehnsucht (02:30)
14. Matthias Goerne – I. Traum durch die Dämmerung (02:40)
15. Matthias Goerne – IV. Morgen (03:56)
16. Matthias Goerne – I. Ruhe meine Seele (03:52)
17. Matthias Goerne – I. Freundliche Vision (02:11)
18. Matthias Goerne – IV. Im Abendrot (07:48)

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