Mendelssohn: Lieder ohne Worte, Vol. 2 - Brautigam
BIS BIS-1983
Stereo/Multichannel Hybrid
Classical - Instrumental
MENDELSSOHN BARTHOLDY, Felix (1809–47)
Sechs Lieder ohne Worte: Op. 62 (1844), Op. 67 (1845), Op. 85 (1850-51), Op. 102 (1867-68)
Sechs Kinderstücke, Op. 72 (1847)
Individual ‘Lieder ohne Worte’:
A major, Allegretto non troppo, ‘Gondellied’, MWV U 136 (1837)
F major, ‘Ein Lied ohne Worte’, MWV U 150 (c. 1841)
D major, Allegro assai, ‘Lied’, MWV U 178 (1843)
D minor, Allegro vivace, ‘Reiter-Lied’, MWV U 187 (1846)
E-flat major, Allegro molto, ‘Lied’, MWV U 82
Zwei Stücke aus dem Notenalbum für Eduard Benecke (1842):
E-flat major, Andante, MWV U 165 (1842)
F major, Sostenuto, MWV U 167 (1842)
Ronald Brautigam (fortepiano)
Ronald Brautigam, piano During the early 19th century a number of composers began to write in new genres inspired by literature: Chopin's Ballades, Schumann's Novelletten and, later, Liszt's symphonic poems are all examples of this Romantic urge to create works that transcend the divide between the arts. In 1828 Felix Mendelssohn invented a genre of his own, when he presented his sister Fanny with a 'song without words' for her birthday. He went on to compose a large number of such Lieder ohne Worte and published no less than six sets of six pieces each. These became immensely popular with amateur and professional pianists, as well as with their respective audiences.
Mendelssohn's death in 1847 did not affect the huge demand for the pieces, and the publisher Simrock soon issued another two sets, compiled from pieces that the composer had set aside for later publication. Mendelssohn himself supplied a few of the songs with more or less descriptive subtitles, but his aim was not to tell an existing story in music instead of words, but rather to communicate something that could only be conveyed through music. To Mendelssohn, music was more exact than language – in his own words: 'the music I love expresses ideas that are not too vague to be captured in words, but on the contrary too precise.’
When Ronald Brautigam's recording of Books 1-4 was released in 2012, the reviewer in International Record Review wrote: ‘One could scarcely hope for performances more vivid or poetic than these.’ This second volume includes the last four published sets of Lieder ohne Worte, as well as a number of other piano miniatures. Brautigam performs them on the same instrument as on the previous disc, a copy by Paul McNulty after a piano from 1830 by Ignaz Pleyel, preserved at Musée de la musique in Paris.
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Recorded in August 2014 at Österåker Church, Sweden, 24/96
Producer and sound engineer: Ingo Petry (Take5 Music Production)
Equipment: BIS's recording teams use microphones from Neumann and Schoeps, audio electronics from RME, Lake People and DirectOut, MADI optical cabling technology, monitoring equipment from B&W, STAX and Sennheiser, and Sequoia and Pyramix digital audio workstations
Post-production: Editing and mixing: Ingo Petry
Executive producer: Robert Suff
- Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy: Andante in E flat major, MWV U 165
- Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy: Kinderstücke (6), Op. 72
- Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy: Songs Without Words in A major, MWV U 136
- Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy: Songs Without Words in D major, MWV U 178
- Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy: Songs Without Words in D minor, MWV U 187
- Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy: Songs Without Words in E flat major, MWV U 82
- Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy: Songs Without Words in F major, MWV U 150
- Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy: Songs Without Words V (6), Op. 62
- Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy: Songs Without Words V (6), Op. 62 No. 1
- Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy: Songs Without Words V (6), Op. 62 No. 2
- Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy: Songs Without Words V (6), Op. 62 No. 3 'Trauermarsch'
- Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy: Songs Without Words V (6), Op. 62 No. 4
- Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy: Songs Without Words V (6), Op. 62 No. 5 'Venezianisches Gondellied'
- Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy: Songs Without Words V (6), Op. 62 No. 6 'Frühlingslied'
- Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy: Songs Without Words VI (6), Op. 67
- Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy: Songs Without Words VI (6), Op. 67 No. 2
- Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy: Songs Without Words VI (6), Op. 67 No. 3
- Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy: Songs Without Words VI (6), Op. 67 No. 4 'Spinnerlied'
- Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy: Songs Without Words VI (6), Op. 67 No. 6
- Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy: Songs Without Words VII (6), Op. 85
- Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy: Songs Without Words VII (6), Op. 85 No. 4
- Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy: Songs Without Words VII (6), Op. 85 No. 5
- Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy: Songs Without Words VIII (6), Op. 102
- Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy: Songs Without Words VIII (6), Op. 102 No. 1
- Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy: Songs Without Words VIII (6), Op. 102 No. 2
- Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy: Songs Without Words VIII (6), Op. 102 No. 3
- Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy: Songs Without Words VIII (6), Op. 102 No. 5
- Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy: Songs Without Words VIII (6), Op. 102 No. 6
- Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy: Sostenuto in F major, MWV U 167
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