Search - Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Franz [Vienna] Schubert, Gerald Moore :: Schubert:Die Schöne Mullerin

Schubert and Fischer-Dieskau at their best

12/13/1998

(5 out of 5 stars)

""Die schöne Müllerin" has always been my favourite from the song-cycles. Fisher-Dieskau, as always, brings out more from this most beautiful of Schubert's song-cycles than most other singers manage to. About "Die schöne Müllerin": Wilhelm Müller's poetry may not be uplifting, but there is a simplicity to the lyrics that makes it possible for anybody, especially a young man hurt in love, to identify with them. There are few complications here: the young miller looking for a job and singing joyfully; the mill and the mill-girl, and the romance; the coming in on the scene of the hunter; and the pain of unrequited love that follows. But Schubert's mastery and Fischer-Dieskau's performance bring even the blandest lyrics to life- consider these words from "Der Jäger": "Und willst du mein Schätzchen dich machen beliebt/So wisse, mein Freund, was ihr Herzchen betrübt/Die Eber, die kommen zur Nacht aus dem Hain,....." ( And if you want to endear yourself to my loved one, then know what troubles her heart: the boars come at night in from the forest, ......") But the song strikes fire in the heart. Schubert is at his most wonderful and passionate in 'Die schöne Müllerin', and this recording is an absolute must in any classical-music lover's collection. It is part of the 'standard equipment', among these, Beethoven's 5th and 9th symphonies, Mozart's fortieth, the late quartets, ........ There is a quality here absent from the other song-cycles and from any random compilations of Schubert-Lieder: the continuity, the story from beginning to end, and the persistent alternation of major and minor within songs in many of the twenty songs. (Listen to the ending of Trockne Blumen.) For those who have never listened to any of Schubert's Lieder, this is THE perfect recording to start with. To see how Fischer-Dieskau can bring out from a Lied what most can't, I remember this line most prominently- in "Der Müller und der Bach": "Ach Bächlein, liebes Bächlein, du meinst es so gut/" Here one best sees how totally involved in the song and the music the singer is; how much from within him the words 'kommen hervor'. Words are a poor carrier of the wonder of this recording, one of the all-time greats: Fischer-Dieskau, Schubert's "Die schöne Müllerin". All of Schubert is here."