Search - Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann, Gerald Martin Moore :: Schubert: Schwanengesang; Schumann: Dichterliebe

A timeless moment in time

Sung-Yoon Lee | Medford, MA United States | 08/20/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Of the dozens of recordings of Shumann's beloved and bitter tale of "Dichterliebe" out there, this 1956 live recording by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Gerlad Moore surely ranks as one of the greatest. Yes, even within the hallowed halls of Salzburg, we have the unwelcome wanton intrusion of coughings here and there; yet the remarkable artistry of the 31 year-old Fischer-Dieskau is immortalized in each song. Heed the brooding tempo and the enunciation of the very last line in "Ich grolle nicht" -- all the more desperate and impassioned than in his 1985 recording with Alfred Brendel. And in the very next song, feel for yourself an entire world of bitter pain in the exclamation "Zerrissen mir das Herz" (has rent my heart asunder). Time seems to stand still. This is a recording to treasure, much like Fritz Wunderlich's 1966 recording of "Dichterliebe" on DG, whose weightless noble tenor ineffably floats throughout the album. Shumann himself was wary of transposition: "The composer finds the right keys in much the same way that the painter selects the right colors." But this is one rendition that even Shumann himself would have adored."