Hausegger Barbarossa & 3 Hymnen

[Alan Howe]

...forthcoming from cpo:
https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/cpo/detail/-/art/siegmund-von-hausegger-barbarossa/hnum/4963361

[UnsungMasterpieces]

That's wonderful news!

[Ilja]

This release was already in the 2012 (ahem) cpo catalogue (pdf link), which mentions the Drei Hymnen an die Nacht (composed 1905 after texts by Gottfried Keller (1819 - 1890), from Natur, in Nacht, no. 5) as the second work, next to Barbarossa.

The same poems, by the way, were set to music by Felix Weingartner and Otmar Schoeck.

[adriano]

Yes, Schoeck includes them into his (21-song's)cycle "Unter Sternen" (a masterwork!). Five songs from this have been wonderfully orchestrated by my friend Rolf Urs Ringger in 1974. I remember attending a Zurich premiere with Peter Pears, singing some Ringger orchestrations, most probably "Wandersprüche".
Here an excellent CD recording - fortunately not with Pears :-)
http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/album.jsp?album_id=39516&album_group=14

[Alan Howe]

fortunately not with Pears

...whose voice I'm entirely allergic to.

[eschiss1]

Pears was dead at the time of recording (of that set) anyway and had been for 8 years? (Unlike some other top-rank vocalists who I was surprised, if not displeased, to find out are still alive.)

[der79sebas]

How can one be allergic to the voice of Pears? *shaking head*

[Gareth Vaughan]

Quite easily, I think. It is a very distinctive (and to some rather mannered) sound - and it got more so as he got older. You either love it or loathe it. He was always, to my ears, marvellous in Britten's music - and he once gave a wonderful Gerontius. Dudley Moore in "Beyond the Fringe", you may recall, produced an extremely clever and funny parody of both Britten's musical style and Pears' vocal timbre: "Little Miss Britten". Listen to it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdmoxlqQQ4c

[adriano]

Pears' "Michelangelo Sonnets", "Les Illuminations" and "Serenade" recordings are good. The worst he ever did was Schubert's "Winterreise". And, of course, having no Britten opera alternatives at that time on LP, one got used to it - but now, re-listening them...
Well, the same goes for Elisabeth Schwarzkopf. Some other also include Fischer-Dieskau, but in this case I am a harsh defender.

[Alan Howe]

Oh dear. What have we started? Back to Hausegger, please!

[Alan Howe]

My copy of the CD arrived from Germany today. Barbarossa, I have to say, must contain some of the loudest passages of purely orchestral music in my collection. In certain pasages I could swear I heard the kitchen sink being thrown into the mix. Nevertheless, it's an immensely impressive, 49-minute, 3-movement symphonic poem - and at this stage I'm prepared to hazard a guess that it might just be the composer's best piece...

Highly recommended.

[adriano]

I still prefer Natursymphonie. Barbarossa is really good, but less original - and it has many cheap and conventional sections.

[Alan Howe]

You're undoubtedly right. The big problem IMHO is the generic nature of the music - one is constantly searching for an individual voice. But there isn't one. Enjoyable, though.

[Ilja]

Has anyone spotted this recording as a download somewhere yet?

[eschiss1]

Out of interest is it the same performance that someone uploaded 4 years ago to YouTube? I only just noticed that...