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Swansong
Franz Schubert

Sir John Tomlinson | Christopher Glynn

Swansong

Price: € 19.95
Format: CD
Label: Signum Classics
UPC: 0635212055021
Catnr: SIGCD 550
Release date: 05 October 2018
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Label
Signum Classics
UPC
0635212055021
Catalogue number
SIGCD 550
Release date
05 October 2018
Album
Artist(s)
Composer(s)
EN
NL

About the album

Christopher Glynn continues his series of late Schubert song cycles in English.

"Schubert’s Swansong, though not itself a cycle, is a logical extension of Die Schöne Müllerin and Winterreise. Here again are the brooks and the birds, the jilted suitors leaving town, the lovers looking at or into the beloved’s house. Loss and longing are everywhere. But if Schöne Müllerin is about hope (finding someone to love) and Winterreise is about despair (leaving someone loved), Schwanengesang is about resignation. The beloved is not by your side and one can deal with that in different ways. By sending messages via rivers, trees or even pigeons. By flight, by self-imposed exile, by dreaming of what might have been and by accepting what never will. The distant or absent beloved is present in almost every song, and though there is no journey involved as in the previous cycles, there is a unity in this collection which shows one where Schubert’s thoughts were. He knew he was going to die and die alone." - Christopher Glynn

Pianist Christopher Glynn zet zijn reeks van in het Engels gezonden liederencycli van Schubert voort met Schwanengesang, vergezeld van de beroemde solisten Sir John Tomlinson, Sophie Bevan, Julian Bliss en Alec Frank-Gemmill.

Schwanengesang D 957 kreeg zijn titel van de eerste uitgever die het werk na Schubert’s dood publiceerde en bevat toonzettingen van gedichten van Ludwig Rellstab, Heinrich Heine en Johann Gabriel Seidl die verschillende emoties behandelen. Het luchthartige "Liebesbotschaft" met zijn kabbelende begeleiding richt zich tot een beekje met de hoop op ware liefde. In het huiveringwekkende "Doppelgänger" met zijn grimmige, langzaam luidende akkoorden wordt de hoofpersoon tot waanzin gedreven door een nachtelijk visioen van hemzelf die kwellend op de drempel van het huis van zijn verloren liefde staat. Sir John Tomlinson, beroemd om zijn heldere dictie en krachtige stem, brengt zijn inzicht en nuance naar deze diepgaande liederen.

Christopher Glynn over Schwanengesang: “Ook al is Schubert’s Schwanengesang zelf geen cyclus, het is een logische voortzetting van Die Schöne Müllerin en Winterreise. Hier zijn opnieuw de beekjes en de vogels, de afgewezen minnaars die de stad verlaten, die naar of in het huis van hun geliefde kijken. Verlies en verlangen zijn overal. Maar waar Die Schöne Müllerin over hoop gaat (het vinden van een geliefde) en Winterreise over wanhoop (het verlaten van een geliefde) gaat Schwanengesang over berusting. De geliefde is niet aan je zijde en daar kan je op verschillende manieren mee omgaan. Door boodschappen te sturen via riveren, bomen of zelfs duiven. Door de vluchten, zelf opgelegde verbanning, door te dromen over wat zou kunnen zijn en accepteren dat dat nooit zal gebeuren. De verre of afwezige geliefde is in bijna elk lied aanwezig. Hoewel er geen reis bij betrokken is zoals in de eerdere cycli, is er een eenheid in deze verzameling die aangeeft waar Schuberts gedachten waren. Hij wist dat hij zou sterven en dat hij alleen zou sterven.”

Der Hirt auf dem Felsen uit 1828 is gecomponeerd op woorden van Wilhelm Müller en de Duitse toneelschrijver Helmina von Chézy uit dankbaarheidheid voor de sopraan Anna Milder-Hauptmann. Op dit album wordt het uitgevoerd door Sophie Bevan en Julian Bliss. Het vertelt het verhaal van een herder die de afstand tussen hem en zijn geliefde betreurt voorafgaand aan een reflectie op eenzaamheid en verdriet. In de laatste sectie wordt de komst van de lente gevierd, als een hoopvolle conclusie.

Auf den Strom doet denken aan Der Hirt auf dem Felsen en is in hetzelfde jaar gecomponeerd. Het lied op een gedicht van Ludwig Rellstab combineert sopraan en hoorn. De compositieopdracht was oorspronkelijk gegeven aan Beethoven, die niet lang genoeg leefde om het werk te schrijven. Schubert pakte het gedicht op in een werk dat een subtiel eerbetoon aan de componist vormt.

Artist(s)

John Tomlinson (bass)

Sir John Tomlinson was born in Lancashire. He gained a BSc in Civil Engineering at Manchester University before winning a scholarship to the Royal Manchester College of Music. He was awarded a CBE in 1997 and knighted in the Queen’s Birthday Honours of 2005. He was awarded the Royal Philharmonic Society Music Award for Singer in 1991, 1998 and 2007 and in 2014 their Gold Medal. He has sung for the world’s leading opera houses, including the Metropolitan Opera, La Scala, Deutsche Oper and Staatsoper, Berlin, Munich, Dresden, Geneva and Paris, the Salzburg, Aix-en-Provence, Munich and Glyndebourne festivals and all the leading British companies. He made his Bayreuth Festival debut in 1988 as Wotan (Der Ring des Nibelungen) under Daniel...
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Sir John Tomlinson was born in Lancashire. He gained a BSc in Civil Engineering at Manchester University before winning a scholarship to the Royal Manchester College of Music. He was awarded a CBE in 1997 and knighted in the Queen’s Birthday Honours of 2005. He was awarded the Royal Philharmonic Society Music Award for Singer in 1991, 1998 and 2007 and in 2014 their Gold Medal. He has sung for the world’s leading opera houses, including the Metropolitan Opera, La Scala, Deutsche Oper and Staatsoper, Berlin, Munich, Dresden, Geneva and Paris, the Salzburg, Aix-en-Provence, Munich and Glyndebourne festivals and all the leading British companies. He made his Bayreuth Festival debut in 1988 as Wotan (Der Ring des Nibelungen) under Daniel Barenboim and went on to sing there every summer from 1989 to 2006. His repertory has included Boris Godunov, Bluebeard, Baron Ochs (Der Rosenkavalier), Golaud (Pelléas et Mélisande), Claggart (Billy Budd), General (The Gambler), Philip II and the Grand Inquisitor (Don Carlo), Méphistophélès (Faust), the four villains (Les Contes d’Hoffmann), the title role of Ivan Susanin, Jacopo Fiesco (Simon Boccanegra), Tommaso Becket (Assassinio nella cattedrale), Boris Ismailov and Moses (Moses und Aron). He also created Green Knight (Gawain) and the Minotaur (The Minotaur) for Harrison Birtwistle. Tomlinson’s wide discography includes CDs of works by Handel, Mozart, Wagner and Stravinsky and DVDs of The Minotaur, Parsifal and Der Ring des Nibelungen.
Rozanna was born in Leicestershire, England, of Ukrainian descent. After completing her undergraduate degree in English Literature and Philosophy at the University of East Anglia, Rozanna decided to dedicate herself to classical singing. She won a place to continue her vocal studies on the postgraduate course at the Royal Academy of Music with Anne Howells and Jonathan Papp in September 2011, where she was recipient of the Kohn Foundation Award. A year later, she became a member of the internationally acclaimed Royal Academy Opera School and Academy Song Circle, where she was recipient of the Karaviotis Scholarship, the Sir Charles Mackerras Award and the Carr-Gregory Trust Award and was a finalist in the prestigious Royal Academy of Music Patrons Award. Rozanna was also awarded the Karaviotis Prize at Les Azuriales Young Artist Competition, Nice, in August 2012 and, in the summer of 2013, attended the Solti Accademia in Castiglione della Pescaia. In May 2012, Rozanna was awarded a place on the prestigious Young Artist Platform at the Oxford Lieder Festival. Since then, she has been invited to perform in various concert halls around the UK and abroad, including the Holywell Music Room, Kings Place, the Mendelssohn-Remise Berlin, the Prokofiev Hall at the Mariinsky Theatre and the Small Hall of the St Petersburg Philharmonia. Previous roles include Prinz Orlofsky in Johann Strauss’ Die Fledermaus (Berlin Opera Academy), Mother Goose in Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress (cover for Festival d’Aix-en-Provence), Second Woman/Second Witch in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas (Birmingham Opera Company), Jezebel in Goehr’s Naboth’s Vineyard (Melos Sinfonia), Beggar Woman in Britten’s Death in Venice (Garsington Opera), Smeraldina in Dove’s The Little Green Swallow (British Youth Opera), the title role in Handel’s Ariodante (Royal Academy Opera), Madame de la Haltière Cendrillon (RAO), Fidalma in Cimarosa’s The Secret Marriage (cover for BYO), the title role in Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges (RAO and the BBC Symphony Orchestra), Hansel in Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel (Sinfonia d’Amici) and Maddalena in Verdi’s Rigoletto (Stanley Opera).

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Christopher Glynn (piano)

Christopher Glynn is a Grammy award-winning pianist and one of the UK’s best- known accompanists and chamber musicians. He combines his performing life with the role of Artistic Director of the Ryedale Festival, where he has been praised by The Times as a ‘visionary’ and ‘inspired programmer’. His recital partners have included Sir Thomas Allen, John Mark Ainsley, Benjamin Appl, Fleur Barron, Julian Bliss, Claire Booth, Ian Bostridge, Allan Clayton, Dame Sarah Connolly, Bernarda Fink, Dame Emma Kirkby, Steven Isserlis, Anthony Rolfe Johnson, Jonas Kaufmann, Dame Felicity Lott, Christopher Maltman, Mark Padmore, Ian Partridge, Joan Rodgers, Kate Royal, Kathryn Rudge, Nicky Spence, Bryn Terfel, Sir John Tomlinson, Robin Tritschler, Ailish Tynan, Roderick Williams and many others. He also performs with a wide variety of chamber ensembles, with choirs including The Sixteen,...
more
Christopher Glynn is a Grammy award-winning pianist and one of the UK’s best- known accompanists and chamber musicians. He combines his performing life with the role of Artistic Director of the Ryedale Festival, where he has been praised by The Times as a ‘visionary’ and ‘inspired programmer’.
His recital partners have included Sir Thomas Allen, John Mark Ainsley, Benjamin Appl, Fleur Barron, Julian Bliss, Claire Booth, Ian Bostridge, Allan Clayton, Dame Sarah Connolly, Bernarda Fink, Dame Emma Kirkby, Steven Isserlis, Anthony Rolfe Johnson, Jonas Kaufmann, Dame Felicity Lott, Christopher Maltman, Mark Padmore, Ian Partridge, Joan Rodgers, Kate Royal, Kathryn Rudge, Nicky Spence, Bryn Terfel, Sir John Tomlinson, Robin Tritschler, Ailish Tynan, Roderick Williams and many others. He also performs with a wide variety of chamber ensembles, with choirs including The Sixteen, VOCES8 and the Eric Whitacre Singers, and on historic pianos with artists including Rachel Podger.
Recent highlights include performances at Wigmore Hall, Carnegie Hall, Edinburgh and Aldeburgh Festivals, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Vienna Konzerthaus, Southbank Centre, BBC Proms and tours to Japan, USA, Canada, Brazil, China and South Asia.
In 2015, Chris founded a Lieder in English project to bring classical song to a wider audience, initially by commissioning Jeremy Sams to create new English versions of song cycles by Schubert, Schumann and Wolf, which have been performed widely and are being recorded for Signum Classics.
His many awards include the accompaniment prize in the 2001 Kathleen Ferrier competition, the 2002 Geoffrey Parsons Award and the 2003 Gerald Moore Award. He has made many acclaimed and ground- breaking recordings and in 2021 was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music.

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Composer(s)

Franz Schubert

Franz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer. Schubert already died before his 32nd birthday, but was extremely prolific during his lifetime. His output consists of over six hundred secular vocal works (mainly Lieder), seven complete symphonies, sacred music, operas, incidental music and a large body of chamber and piano music. Appreciation of his music while he was alive was limited to a relatively small circle of admirers in Vienna, but interest in his work increased significantly in the decades following his death. Felix Mendelssohn, Robert Schumann, Franz Liszt, Johannes Brahms and other 19th-century composers discovered and championed his works. Today, Schubert is ranked among the greatest composers of the late Classical and early Romantic eras and is one of the...
more
Franz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer. Schubert already died before his 32nd birthday, but was extremely prolific during his lifetime. His output consists of over six hundred secular vocal works (mainly Lieder), seven complete symphonies, sacred music, operas, incidental music and a large body of chamber and piano music. Appreciation of his music while he was alive was limited to a relatively small circle of admirers in Vienna, but interest in his work increased significantly in the decades following his death. Felix Mendelssohn, Robert Schumann, Franz Liszt, Johannes Brahms and other 19th-century composers discovered and championed his works. Today, Schubert is ranked among the greatest composers of the late Classical and early Romantic eras and is one of the most frequently performed composers of the early nineteenth century.
It was in the genre of the Lied that Schubert made his most indelible mark. Prior to Schubert's influence, Lieder tended toward a strophic, syllabic treatment of text, evoking the folksong qualities engendered by the stirrings of Romantic nationalism. Schubert expanded the potentialities of the genre like no other composer before.

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Press

Play album Play album
01.
Schwanengesang D. 957 'Swan Song': I. Liesbesbotschaft
02:59
(Franz Schubert) John Tomlinson, Christopher Glynn
02.
Schwanengesang D. 957 'Swan Song': II. Kreigers Ahnung
05:30
(Franz Schubert) John Tomlinson, Christopher Glynn
03.
Schwanengesang D. 957 'Swan Song': III. Frühlingssehnsucht
03:47
(Franz Schubert) John Tomlinson, Christopher Glynn
04.
Schwanengesang D. 957 'Swan Song': IV. Ständchen
03:48
(Franz Schubert) John Tomlinson, Christopher Glynn
05.
Schwanengesang D. 957 'Swan Song': V. Aufenthalt
03:28
(Franz Schubert) John Tomlinson, Christopher Glynn
06.
Schwanengesang D. 957 'Swan Song': VI. In der Ferne
05:20
(Franz Schubert) John Tomlinson, Christopher Glynn
07.
Schwanengesang D. 957 'Swan Song': VII. Abschied
04:31
(Franz Schubert) John Tomlinson, Christopher Glynn
08.
Schwanengesang D. 957 'Swan Song': VIII. Der Atlas
02:20
(Franz Schubert) John Tomlinson, Christopher Glynn
09.
Schwanengesang D. 957 'Swan Song': IX. Ihr Bild
03:01
(Franz Schubert) John Tomlinson, Christopher Glynn
10.
Schwanengesang D. 957 'Swan Song': X. Das Fischermädchen
02:11
(Franz Schubert) John Tomlinson, Christopher Glynn
11.
Schwanengesang D. 957 'Swan Song': XI. Die Stadt
03:08
(Franz Schubert) John Tomlinson, Christopher Glynn
12.
Schwanengesang D. 957 'Swan Song': XII. Am Meer
04:30
(Franz Schubert) John Tomlinson, Christopher Glynn
13.
Schwanengesang D. 957 'Swan Song': XIII. Der Doppelgänger
04:09
(Franz Schubert) John Tomlinson, Christopher Glynn
14.
Schwanengesang D. 957 'Swan Song': XIV. Die Taubenpost
03:54
(Franz Schubert) John Tomlinson, Christopher Glynn
15.
Auf dem Strom, D.943 'On the River'
08:59
(Franz Schubert) Christopher Glynn, Sophie Bevan, Julian Bliss, Alec Frank-Gemmill
16.
Der Hirt auf dem Felsen, D.965 'The Shepherd on the Rock'
11:07
(Franz Schubert) Christopher Glynn, Sophie Bevan, Julian Bliss, Alec Frank-Gemmill
show all tracks

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