@@JussiTTvanVickTheOperaAddict not a very precise performance and some of the pitches are under, but Hermann Prey was a beautiful I interpreter of lieder.
@@trumanlittler1576 This is indeed a nice example of the older Prey, but if you are interested in this magnificent composition you could also hear the recording Prey did earlier in his life with Martin Mälzer on the piano, and together with Hotter and the first recording of Dieskau, definitely the third which is of the highest order comes from Alexander Kipnis. Deep understanding of the text and the music from a Brahms specialist.
Thanks! Am guessing this must have been his recital at Carnegie Hall on 26 January. Hope you have more of it to share.... Here was the Sunday NY Times review by John Rockwell: "Hermann Prey's lieder recital Thursday night [January 26, 1984] at Carnegie Hall was devoted exclusively to Brahms, amounting to a neatly selected survey of Brahms as a song composer. Brahms was not a natural lyricist like Schubert or a proto-Wagnerian musical dramatist like Hugo Wolf. While love songs predominate in his works, and were sometimes inspired by romantic attachments, they tend to lack both heartfelt melody and psychologically subtle responsiveness to the texts. As a rule, piquancy and wit were not his strong suits, either. For Brahms, the basis of the art song was the folk song. Just as he based his instrumental work on the bedrock of Classical models, anchoring them in the middle of the Romantic maelstrom, he felt a comparable need to revert to basics with the lied. Mr. Prey's selection on Thursday thus began with seven songs of different poets, all love songs, and ended with seven German folk songs, which also were love songs, but this time with folk texts. In between, came the Four Serious Songs (Op. 121), to Biblical texts as translated by Luther, and four of the Romances from Ludwig Tieck's ''Fair Magelone'' (Op. 33). The last youthful work established Brahms's fame in Germany, and counts as his only narrative song cycle: as such, it was unfortunate to hear only 4 of the 15, although that was a necessary limitation if Mr. Prey's survey could be contained in one evening. The late Four Serious Songs are the lieder equivalent of the German Requiem within Brahms's work: deeply moving, intensely personal, and probably his greatest achievement in the song form. Mr. Prey has been a leading German baritone for nearly 30 years, yet his voice remains in superb technical condition. His ability to encompass a range from high baritone down to genuine bass sounded unimpaired, and his skill at coloring the voice with falsetto, and of sustaining long, awkwardly placed lines, was impressive indeed. Although he has devoted much of his career to song literature, Mr. Prey retains an operatic heft that robs his lieder singing of the ideal conversational simplicity and directness. And beyond this occasional tendency to bluster, there is an oddly lachrymose quality to his production that hints too readily at manly kitsch. That said, Mr. Prey remains a serious and appealing artist, one who projected most convincingly the moods of this widely varied program and who rose movingly to the emotional demands of the Four Serious Songs. Helmut Deutsch was the sympathetic if rather dull-sounding pianist (the lid of his Bösendorfer was shut tight). There were no program notes, but German and English texts were provided."
I am a great fan of Hermann Prey singing Schubert's Lieder and I am a great fan of Brahms' Vier ernste Gesänge, but this is not my cup of tea. Apart from that all those coughing people should be banned for life from concerts.
What a wonderful version! I'm so used to only hearing Dieskau and Hotter. This is amazing
Glad you enjoyed it, even though he was getting rather old by then.
@@JussiTTvanVickTheOperaAddict not a very precise performance and some of the pitches are under, but Hermann Prey was a beautiful I interpreter of lieder.
@@trumanlittler1576 This is indeed a nice example of the older Prey, but if you are interested in this magnificent composition you could also hear the recording Prey did earlier in his life with Martin Mälzer on the piano,
and together with Hotter and the first recording of Dieskau, definitely
the third which is of the highest order comes from Alexander Kipnis.
Deep understanding of the text and the music from a Brahms specialist.
Thanks! Am guessing this must have been his recital at Carnegie Hall on 26 January. Hope you have more of it to share....
Here was the Sunday NY Times review by John Rockwell: "Hermann Prey's lieder recital Thursday night [January 26, 1984] at Carnegie Hall was devoted exclusively to Brahms, amounting to a neatly selected survey of Brahms as a song composer.
Brahms was not a natural lyricist like Schubert or a proto-Wagnerian musical dramatist like Hugo Wolf. While love songs predominate in his works, and were sometimes inspired by romantic attachments, they tend to lack both heartfelt melody and psychologically subtle responsiveness to the texts. As a rule, piquancy and wit were not his strong suits, either. For Brahms, the basis of the art song was the folk song. Just as he based his instrumental work on the bedrock of Classical models, anchoring them in the middle of the Romantic maelstrom, he felt a comparable need to revert to basics with the lied.
Mr. Prey's selection on Thursday thus began with seven songs of different poets, all love songs, and ended with seven German folk songs, which also were love songs, but this time with folk texts.
In between, came the Four Serious Songs (Op. 121), to Biblical texts as translated by Luther, and four of the Romances from Ludwig Tieck's ''Fair Magelone'' (Op. 33). The last youthful work established Brahms's fame in Germany, and counts as his only narrative song cycle: as such, it was unfortunate to hear only 4 of the 15, although that was a necessary limitation if Mr. Prey's survey could be contained in one evening. The late Four Serious Songs are the lieder equivalent of the German Requiem within Brahms's work: deeply moving, intensely personal, and probably his greatest achievement in the song form.
Mr. Prey has been a leading German baritone for nearly 30 years, yet his voice remains in superb technical condition. His ability to encompass a range from high baritone down to genuine bass sounded unimpaired, and his skill at coloring the voice with falsetto, and of sustaining long, awkwardly placed lines, was impressive indeed.
Although he has devoted much of his career to song literature, Mr. Prey retains an operatic heft that robs his lieder singing of the ideal conversational simplicity and directness. And beyond this occasional tendency to bluster, there is an oddly lachrymose quality to his production that hints too readily at manly kitsch.
That said, Mr. Prey remains a serious and appealing artist, one who projected most convincingly the moods of this widely varied program and who rose movingly to the emotional demands of the Four Serious Songs. Helmut Deutsch was the sympathetic if rather dull-sounding pianist (the lid of his Bösendorfer was shut tight). There were no program notes, but German and English texts were provided."
I am a great fan of Hermann Prey singing Schubert's Lieder and I am a great fan of Brahms' Vier ernste Gesänge, but this is not my cup of tea. Apart from that all those coughing people should be banned for life from concerts.