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Romanzen aus Die Schöne Magelone
Johannes Brahms

Roderick Williams

Romanzen aus Die Schöne Magelone

Price: € 19.95
Format: CD
Label: Champs Hill
UPC: 5060212591111
Catnr: CHRCD 108
Release date: 06 October 2017
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2 CD
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€ 19.95
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Label
Champs Hill
UPC
5060212591111
Catalogue number
CHRCD 108
Release date
06 October 2017
Album
Artist(s)
Composer(s)
EN

About the album

Either I am a sucker for late-Romantic song or perhaps for histrionic fairytales of derring-do and blushing maidens, but I for one was enthralled by Brahms’s ‘Die schöne Magelone’ on first hearing. It was presented in such a way as to grip the audience from the outset: a narrator set the scene and linked the songs, all of this in an exciting, modern English précis, while the songs themselves were performed in German by a range of young singers and pianists, each one encapsulating the heightened emotion of each piece. I left the recital with the sort of heart-pounding best described by the likes of Berlioz.

When the opportunity came for me to learn these songs, I relished the chance, finding along the way that Brahms’s glorious, sweeping vocal lines really suited my voice. I revelled in the ardour of emotion in Tieck’s lyrics, channelling my inner Romantic adolescent. Pianist Roger Vignoles enlisted the wonderful Julia Somerville to narrate between the songs using Roger’s own reduction of Tieck’s story and the three of us, like troubadours of old, presented this epic fairytale in concerts around the country.

It is easy for us sophisticates in the twenty-first century to treat such material with a certain hauteur, or even ridicule. But what I noticed in concert, especially as Julia’s narration unfolded, giving me a chance slyly to observe the audience, is that people were very quickly spellbound by the tale. All of us, I observed, love to be told a story.

I am hugely grateful to Champs Hill for allowing me the privilege of recording these songs and the Vier Ernste Gesänge. When the sessions were all but finished, I begged for the indulgence of those present and asked to record Roger’s English narration, pretty much on a whim. I hoped it might help persuade some audiences, perhaps unfamiliar with these songs and especially out of their context, that this really is a most terrific and enchanting work. I hoped it might connect with the wide-eyed child in us all, anyone who cannot resist “Once upon a time...”.

Artist(s)

Roderick Williams (baritone)

Roderick Williams is one of the most sought-after baritones of his generation and enjoys relationships with all the major UK and European opera houses. He has sung world premieres of operas by, among others, David Sawer, Sally Beamish, Michael van der Aa, Robert Saxton and Alexander Knaifel as well as roles by Mozart, Britten and Strauss. He has performed concert repertoire with many of the leading orchestras and ensembles internationally including the Berlin and New York Philharmonic Orchestras, London Symphony Orchestra and all of the BBC Orchestras. In demand as a recitalist, he has performed at major venues worldwide and festival appearances have included BBC Proms (Last Night 2014), Edinburgh, Cheltenham, Aldeburgh and Melbourne. In 2016 he won the RPS...
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Roderick Williams is one of the most sought-after baritones of his generation and enjoys relationships with all the major UK and European opera houses. He has sung world premieres of operas by, among others, David Sawer, Sally Beamish, Michael van der Aa, Robert Saxton and Alexander Knaifel as well as roles by Mozart, Britten and Strauss. He has performed concert repertoire with many of the leading orchestras and ensembles internationally including the Berlin and New York Philharmonic Orchestras, London Symphony Orchestra and all of the BBC Orchestras. In demand as a recitalist, he has performed at major venues worldwide and festival appearances have included BBC Proms (Last Night 2014), Edinburgh, Cheltenham, Aldeburgh and Melbourne. In 2016 he won the RPS Singer award and the prize for best choral composition at the British Composer Awards. He was awarded the OBE for services to music in 2017 and was one of the featured soloists at the coronation of King Charles III in 2023.


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Composer(s)

Johannes Brahms

Johannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria. His reputation and status as a composer is such that he is sometimes grouped with Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven as one of the 'Three Bs' of music, a comment originally made by the nineteenth-century conductor Hans von Bülow.   Brahms composed for symphony orchestra, chamber ensembles, piano, organ, and voice and chorus. A virtuoso pianist, he premiered many of his own works. He worked with some of the leading performers of his time, including the pianist Clara Schumann and the violinist Joseph Joachim (the three were close friends). Many of his works have become...
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Johannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria. His reputation and status as a composer is such that he is sometimes grouped with Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven as one of the "Three Bs" of music, a comment originally made by the nineteenth-century conductor Hans von Bülow.
Brahms composed for symphony orchestra, chamber ensembles, piano, organ, and voice and chorus. A virtuoso pianist, he premiered many of his own works. He worked with some of the leading performers of his time, including the pianist Clara Schumann and the violinist Joseph Joachim (the three were close friends). Many of his works have become staples of the modern concert repertoire. Brahms, an uncompromising perfectionist, destroyed some of his works and left others unpublished.
Brahms has been considered, by his contemporaries and by later writers, as both a traditionalist and an innovator. His music is firmly rooted in the structures and compositional techniques of the Classical masters. While many contemporaries found his music too academic, his contribution and craftsmanship have been admired by subsequent figures as diverse as Arnold Schoenberg and Edward Elgar. The diligent, highly constructed nature of Brahms's works was a starting point and an inspiration for a generation of composers. Within his meticulous structures is embedded, however, a highly romantic nature.

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Press

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Disc #1
01.
15 Romanzen Aus Die Schone Magelone: This is the story of...
01:26
(Johannes Brahms) Roderick Williams, Roger Vignoles
02.
15 Romanzen Aus Die Schone Magelone: i Keinen hat es noch gereut
03:42
(Johannes Brahms) Roderick Williams, Roger Vignoles
03.
15 Romanzen Aus Die Schone Magelone: Peter listened quietly...
01:50
(Johannes Brahms) Roderick Williams, Roger Vignoles
04.
15 Romanzen Aus Die Schone Magelone: ii Traun! Bogen und Pfeil sind gut fu?r den Feind
01:43
(Johannes Brahms) Roderick Williams, Roger Vignoles
05.
15 Romanzen Aus Die Schone Magelone: After travelling for many days...
01:29
(Johannes Brahms) Roderick Williams, Roger Vignoles
06.
15 Romanzen Aus Die Schone Magelone: iii Sind es Schmerzen, sind es Freuden
05:35
(Johannes Brahms) Roderick Williams, Roger Vignoles
07.
15 Romanzen Aus Die Schone Magelone: Peter vowed...
01:47
(Johannes Brahms) Roderick Williams, Roger Vignoles
08.
15 Romanzen Aus Die Schone Magelone: iv Liebe kam aus fernen Landen
04:46
(Johannes Brahms) Roderick Williams, Roger Vignoles
09.
15 Romanzen Aus Die Schone Magelone: Magelone was deeply moved...
01:01
(Johannes Brahms) Roderick Williams, Roger Vignoles
10.
15 Romanzen Aus Die Schone Magelone: v So willst du des Armen dich gna?dig erbarmen?
01:39
(Johannes Brahms) Roderick Williams, Roger Vignoles
11.
15 Romanzen Aus Die Schone Magelone: The following morning...
01:13
(Johannes Brahms) Roderick Williams, Roger Vignoles
12.
15 Romanzen Aus Die Schone Magelone: vi Wie soll ich die Freude, die Wonne denn tragen?
06:33
(Johannes Brahms) Roderick Williams, Roger Vignoles
13.
15 Romanzen Aus Die Schone Magelone: At last it was the hour...
01:38
(Johannes Brahms) Roderick Williams, Roger Vignoles
14.
15 Romanzen Aus Die Schone Magelone: vii War es dir, dem diese Lippen bebten
03:21
(Johannes Brahms) Roderick Williams, Roger Vignoles
15.
15 Romanzen Aus Die Schone Magelone: Now it so happened...
01:39
(Johannes Brahms) Roderick Williams, Roger Vignoles
16.
15 Romanzen Aus Die Schone Magelone: viii Wir mu?ssen uns trennen, geliebtes Saitenspiel
04:27
(Johannes Brahms) Roderick Williams, Roger Vignoles
17.
15 Romanzen Aus Die Schone Magelone: As soon as night fell...
01:02
(Johannes Brahms) Roderick Williams, Roger Vignoles
18.
15 Romanzen Aus Die Schone Magelone: ix Ruhe, Sussliebchen
05:39
(Johannes Brahms) Roderick Williams, Roger Vignoles
19.
15 Romanzen Aus Die Schone Magelone: Gazing up into the treetops...
02:03
(Johannes Brahms) Roderick Williams, Roger Vignoles
20.
15 Romanzen Aus Die Schone Magelone: x Verzweiflung, “So tonet denn”
02:37
(Johannes Brahms) Roderick Williams, Roger Vignoles
21.
15 Romanzen Aus Die Schone Magelone: Meanwhile back in the forest...
01:56
(Johannes Brahms) Roderick Williams, Roger Vignoles
22.
15 Romanzen Aus Die Schone Magelone: xi Wie schnell verschwindet so Licht als Glanz
03:44
(Johannes Brahms) Roderick Williams, Roger Vignoles
23.
15 Romanzen Aus Die Schone Magelone: Far out at sea...
00:47
(Johannes Brahms) Roderick Williams, Roger Vignoles
24.
15 Romanzen Aus Die Schone Magelone: xii Muss es eine Trennung geben
03:13
(Johannes Brahms) Roderick Williams, Roger Vignoles
25.
15 Romanzen Aus Die Schone Magelone: Now the sultan had a daughter...
01:56
(Johannes Brahms) Roderick Williams, Roger Vignoles
26.
15 Romanzen Aus Die Schone Magelone: xiii Sulima, “Geliebter, wo zaudert”
02:08
(Johannes Brahms) Roderick Williams, Roger Vignoles
27.
15 Romanzen Aus Die Schone Magelone: As Peter heard this song...
00:47
(Johannes Brahms) Roderick Williams, Roger Vignoles
28.
15 Romanzen Aus Die Schone Magelone: xiv Wie froh und Frisch
02:35
(Johannes Brahms) Roderick Williams, Roger Vignoles
29.
15 Romanzen Aus Die Schone Magelone: When day dawned...
03:31
(Johannes Brahms) Roderick Williams, Roger Vignoles
30.
15 Romanzen Aus Die Schone Magelone: xv Treue Liebe dauert lange
04:50
(Johannes Brahms) Roderick Williams, Roger Vignoles

Disc #2
01.
Vier Ernste Gesange Op. 121: i Denn es gehet dem Menschen
04:15
02.
Vier Ernste Gesange Op. 121: ii Ich wandte mich, und sahe an Alle
03:51
03.
Vier Ernste Gesange Op. 121: iii O Tod, o Tod, wie bitter bist du
03:25
04.
Vier Ernste Gesange Op. 121: iv Wenn ich mit Menschen - und mit Engelzungen redete
04:54
05.
15 Romanzen Aus Die Schone Magelone: i Keinen hat es noch gereut
03:42
06.
15 Romanzen Aus Die Schone Magelone: ii Traun! Bogen und Pfeil sind gut fu?r den Feind
01:43
07.
15 Romanzen Aus Die Schone Magelone: iii Sind es Schmerzen, sind es Freuden
05:35
08.
15 Romanzen Aus Die Schone Magelone: iv Liebe kam aus fernen Landen
04:46
09.
15 Romanzen Aus Die Schone Magelone: v So willst du des Armen dich gna?dig erbarmen?
01:39
10.
15 Romanzen Aus Die Schone Magelone: vi Wie soll ich die Freude, die Wonne denn tragen?
06:33
11.
15 Romanzen Aus Die Schone Magelone: vii War es dir, dem diese Lippen bebten
03:21
12.
15 Romanzen Aus Die Schone Magelone: viii Wir mu?ssen uns trennen, geliebtes Saitenspiel
04:27
13.
15 Romanzen Aus Die Schone Magelone: ix Ruhe, Su?ssliebchen
05:39
14.
15 Romanzen Aus Die Schone Magelone: x Verzweiflung, “So tonet denn”
02:37
15.
15 Romanzen Aus Die Schone Magelone: xi Wie schnell verschwindet so Licht als Glanz
03:44
16.
15 Romanzen Aus Die Schone Magelone: xii Muss es eine Trennung geben
03:13
17.
15 Romanzen Aus Die Schone Magelone: xiii Sulima,?Geliebter, wo zaudert?
02:08
18.
15 Romanzen Aus Die Schone Magelone: xiv Wie froh und Frisch
02:35
19.
15 Romanzen Aus Die Schone Magelone: xv Treue Liebe dauert lange
04:50
show all tracks

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