Search - Yves Saelens - tenor;Jan Vermeulen - piano :: Robert Franz: Lieder

The Songs of Robert Franz

Robin Friedman | Washington, D.C. United States | 09/29/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"As did Hugo Wolf, Robert Franz (1815 -- 1892) composed almost exclusively in the realm of art song. Unfortunately, and unlike Wolf, the songs of Franz are almost unknown today. I had the rare good fortune of getting my first exposure to Franz at the same time that I received my first exposure to the art song,many years ago. It was the beginning of a lifelong love of song.



Any appearance of a CD devoted to Robert Franz is an event. This CD on the Eticetera label consists of 33 songs performed by tenor Yves Saelens and pianist Jan Vermeulen. Vermeulen plays an 1851 Bosendorfer which has a softer sound that the modern piano and adds a special appeal and intimacy to this performance. Saelens sings this music with passion and commitment but with a voice that sometimes is raw in its higher reaches.



Robert Franz received early training as an organist and the influence of Bach and Handel is apparent in the piano parts of the songs. His work owes much to Robert Schumann who praised and promoted his work and urged Franz, to no avail, to write in other forms of music besides the art song. Franz later alienated Schumann and others through his jealousy and other character problems. He became deaf in his later years, joining Beethoven and Smetana in the category of deaf composers.



Beginning in 1843, Franz composed over 250 songs. They are simple, restrained, and strophic in style. The melodies are immediately appealing, and Franz showed a mastery in capturing the mood of a poem in his setting. Even within the medium of the art song, Franz' songs are short and succinct. The piano and voice parts are integrated intimately, but Franz generally avoided the separate piano preludes and postludes that Schubert, Schumann and Wolf used extensively. His songs show an excellent feeling for poetry as Franz set poems by Heine (70 songs), Goethe, Morike, Eichendorf, and Ruckert, among others. No other composer of art song set poetry of such consistently high quality. As a composer Franz said that "my lieder are not meant to create excitement but rather peace and calm." Within the limited goals he set himself, Franz produced jewels of songs.



On this CD Saelens and Vermeulen perform settings of Franz's songs giving the listener a feel for the intimacy and moods of his music. There is a consistency to Franz' writing over the course of his career. I particularly enjoyed the settings of the 11 Heine poems included in this selection. Other songs I enjoyed include "Bitte", set to a text by Nikolaus Lenau, "Fur Musik", by Emanuel von Geibel, and "Ein Stadlein wohl vor Tag" set to a text of Morike. The liner notes include the German texts of the songs but no English translation. But this is emotive yet classically restrained music.



There is joy to be found in discovering and learning to appreciate composers that have been assigned, for whatever reason, to the fate of near-oblivion. Franz's music deserves to be heard. The performers and recording companies who offer the chance to hear this music deserve gratitude. This CD will appeal to lovers of art song who want to broaden their musical knowledge beyond the masterpieces of Schubert, Schumann, Brahms and Wolf.



Robin Friedman"