J. Prégardien Records Schubert's Die schöne Müllerin
I endured a deep dive into Schubert’s song cycle known as the Miller’s Daughter or Fair Maid of the Mill in one of my music theory classes in college. Music theory, for those who have never taken a class, focuses a lot upon the harmony in music. Musical style over time dictated new opportunities. In some respects, you might say that composers started to break the old rules over musical history. Of course there is more than harmony to musical theory, but I always appreciated that our professor took us through more than just exercises and that our study was rooted in real music.
Learning how the underlying harmony supported the text was then, and still is, fascintating.
New from Harmonia Mundi is a recording by Kristian Bezuidenhout (period piano) and Julian Prégardien (tenor). Upon first listen I was enamored by the sound of Bezuidenhout’s piano, a copy of a Conrad Graf from Vienna (1825).
Not long ago a friend introduced me to a new release by tenor Markus Schäfer and pianist Tobias Koch which was wonderfully rendered with emotion. The release was unique for also including a cycle by the composer Berger. I still would recommend checking out this release—although if you’re only interested in one I would recommend this new release featuring Julian Prégardien.
For one, Prégardien’s voice for me is a little fuller and to my taste, more attractive. I also am in awe of the sound engineering in this release on Harmonia Mundi, through which Prégardien many times seems to escape the filter of a microphone and come out into my room.
Cate Pisaroni was responsible for the liner notes and chose to interview both performers which I love—including the artists own insight into the performance and history of a work I think is always the way to go. Bezuidenhout offers a short essay on the choice of piano used.
Perhaps what really stands out in this performance for me is the deep range of emotions that are brought about between songs; Prégardien’s voice can get soft and demure then can rise beyond the expectations for dynamics and several times almost switches to speaking the text. His range of vocal style I think is so well done to convey the emotional material in the songs. That combined with slowing things down before rallying the tempo up again are such welcome surprises.
Bezuidenhout is in lock step with Prégardien, pushing the piano to its fullest dynamic extremes. The dynamic playing is often in good balance with Prégardien and the dryness of the period piano is welcome to my ears over an overly resonate modern piano.
I will admit my familiarity with this work was steeped in the recording made on Denon by Hermann Prey during my college years. The approach in that recording was one of refinement. Here, I feel, both performers have stepped out of trying to please an audience from a stage and are both more emotionally invested in the text by Müller and the mental state of the protagonist.
Among my favorite songs are Mein! and Der Jäger. Both do not disappoint under Prégardien and Bezuidenhout. It’s still hard for be to believe Schubert’s ability as a composer of these songs at the young age of twenty-six.
There are of course many recordings of this cycle and many will have established favorites. The recordings made by Fischer-Dieskau are favorites of many. For me, this new recording forced me to hear these songs as if they were new. It’s if the performers went back in time and took us to hearing them for the first time. Which is a weird fantasy to impose with no real basis, but it’s still a fantasy that resonates with me. The quiet intensity in Die Liebe Farbe is hauntingly well done.
And yes—I think Julian has outdone his own father, the lyric tenor Christoph Prégardien (who partnered with Andreas Staier) in this new recording. Adding to the artistry of this album—as mentioned—is well-recorded album that I doubt has a peer. Congrats to the team of Volker Neumann and Myriam Müller who captured this album in Stuttgart at the SWR Funkstudio.
