Search - Schumann, Norman, Gage :: Frauenliebe Und Leben / Liederkreis

Recording for the rest of your life...

Alex Resh | Des Moines, IOWA USA | 02/28/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I have to warn the readers - I am not a reviewer, at least I have never written any before. I am a music lover and a frequent music buyer during the last 15 years. I have about 4,000 CD in my collection with the half of it being classical music especially opera and other forms of choral music. When I see an item like a classical recording on Amazon with over 3-4 reviews I know it must be something at least worth researching. But the fact that this recording has only one review really got me going into writing also I am not very good at English - it is not my first language. I just couldn't believe it. I red the only review and have decided to do what I immediately felt the right thing to do - justice!

Last night while as usually unable to sleep in complete desperation I turned on TV and hit the jackpot. It was "Diva" - bizarre thriller about a French post worker falling in love with African-American opera singer performing in Paris. There is a moment in the picture when the character gets his main reward. The Diva allows him to listen to her while she is rehearsing in hotel by singing to the piano. I couldn't see the credits on my 13" TV so I do not know who was actually singing in the move. As soon it was over I had rushed through my collection to find something by Jessye Norman. First I wanted to give myself a treat by listening Schoenberg's Gurreliders, but it was already 4:00 AM, so I reconsidered and kept on browsing and suddenly stumbled upon Schumann's' Op.39.

I always thought of this recording more as of an act of culture rather then just an item in my music collection or the product of recoding industry which seems to be politically correct to criticize nowadays. It was sitting lonely on my shelf untouched for the last 2-3 years. For me this recording is especially unique coincidence. First - Schumann's choice of Eichendorff as the lyric source (German was my second language and I have studied the German literature in German and I still remember "Mondnacht" every single word because I red it so many times aloud). Second - Irwin's Cages choice to play piano part from original manuscript which differs from printed version and finally Phillips choice of African-American soprano for most of their German poetry vocal recordings.

Since this is meant to be a review I have to at least attempt to describe feelings it evokes while listening. At this particular evening it was especially powerful experience. It just "blow" me away from the cold late winter night with the ice storm outside into the warm quite summer evening so beautifully depicted in Echendorf's masterpiece. Since I do not have musical education I would not even try to analyze the structure of composition or my understanding of Schumann's artistic life as a proof of Sturm und Drang Bewegung ideals, nor I want to go into details of my own `home cooked" theory about technical challenges of blending such a rare gift like dramatic soprano of Jessye Norman with the sound of a precision crafted mechanical device - carefully selected and well tuned grand piano while using Phillips digital mixing console circa 1975...

The synergy resulted out collaboration of such an extraordinary cast and resources produced so much energy and tension so it makes it almost a painful pleasure to listen to. I would say it was something on the edge of true pleasure through suffering while being so desperately sad and happy in the same time about the fact that the world, as it appears to us in form of nature, is so astonishingly beautiful and everlasting and the human soul which to me so far has been successfully proven to exist only by art, is so fragile and so accidental. I didn't even noticed the hour gone by when it was already over -"Jauchzen mocht ich, mochte weinen..." - it was a summoning hour between night and day worth of years when you realize that you are ready for the next step, one more closer to your destination, and the wisdom is not in understanding why things happen but in the mystery of their existence and the happiness is not in catching unreachable but in trying to reach for it...

Accidentally I gazed at my wrist watch - it was 5:00 AM CST US time February 27, 2007. On that day 153 years ago Robert Schumann threw himself into the Rhine in attempted suicide. Of course it was just coincidence, you know one of those things that happen to us which are so unusual so we tend to forget about them very soon like they never happen at all. But accidents do happen and Schumann too was accidentally saved by boatmen (who must have been fishing late February) and died only 2 years later, but I do not remember any opuses dated later than that day...

This all brings me to the final observation and conclusion. I hear now and then remarks thrown in the address of recording industry for ripping us - consumers. You pay close to 20 dollars for that kind of recordings in Barnes and Nobles plus sales tax. On the other hand someone else pays maybe a few dollars less for something that is worthless to me but maybe not bad at all and somewhat desirable to others. But what about an act of true art which is priceless, is there a justified price tag to it?

Those of us who pay credit card on time enjoy convenience of not carrying checks and cash around and even get airline miles - fly for free. Not exactly for free, because our convenience is paid by those who are actually buying something they do not have yet money to buy, and pay up to 25 percent on top of actual price. By the way, they say a lot of those credit cards will default on payments and at the end we as society, nation, or generation will have to pay for it anyway...

But this is going to happen sometime in the future. Today I am so thankful to recording companies like Phillips for doing such a great job in releasing chamber music. I am so proud of artists like Jessye Norman who has outstanding repertoire of piano songs. I would bet it is not that easy and takes the special dedication. If they wouldn't do it songs for voice and piano would be extinct by now, at least for me. It is cost prohibitive to enjoy this art form in the form other that a good recording which most likely cost a fortune to organize and produce comparing to the revenues realized in sales. I wish someone could get the numbers for this particular case.

True art never was or will be profitable enterprise and had always survived thanks to mecenats', aficionados, kings, criminals, and ...of course, artists themselves whom I an especially thankful to. I don't think and do not expect that the thousands of dollars I have paid for my collection have made any impact on their existence or well being. I just wish this recording will find its mates, those who can really appreciate and enjoy it for the rest of their life.

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