Lieder, neue Ausgabe, Bd. I: Die schöne Müllerin; Winterreise; Schwanengesang by FranzSchubert; Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau; Elmar Budde; Liederkreis, nach Gedichten von Joseph vonEichendorff, op. 39; für Singstimme und Klavier by Robert Schumann; Hans Joachim KöhlerReview by: Janet SullivanNotes, Second Series, Vol. 45, No. 3 (Mar., 1989), p. 637Published by: Music Library AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/940840 .

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Music Reviews Music Reviews

treatment of Hardy, demonstrating many of the maudlin proclivities that brought down Berkeley's antiwar oratorio Or Shall We Die? The most notable shortcoming is his weakness for gauche text-painting ges- tures that literally capsize the final stanzas of these otherwise uneventful strophic set- tings. In the first two songs this takes the form of ostentatious glissandi in the harp, while in the third, the last line repeats ad nauseam, like a bad Handel parody. Berke- ley has interesting melodic quirks, such as a tendency to leap a third above the ex- pected note at climactic points, but these are submerged by his insistence on unsyn- copated, plodding rhythms. With some of Hardy's bitterest pronouncements at his disposal, Berkeley vacillates between the overstated and the precious.

SAM W. RICHMOND Scottsdale Public Library

Franz Schubert. Lieder, neue Aus- gabe, Bd. I: Die schone Millerin; Winterreise; Schwanengesang. Hrsg. von Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau; Musik- wissenschaftliche Revision von Elmar Budde. Gesang und Klavier; tiefe Stimme. Frankfurt: Peters, 1985. [182 p., $38.50.]

Robert Schumann. Liederkreis, nach Gedichten von Joseph von Eichen- dorff, op. 39; fur Singstimme und Klavier. Nach den Quellen hrsg. von Hans Joachim Kohler; Originalaus- gabe fur Sopran oder Tenor. Leipzig: Peters, 1985. [Score, 30 p.; Nachwort and Revisionsbericht in Ger., 8 p., $10.00.]

The impeccably accurate publisher Pe- ters offers us here new urtext editions of the three major Schubert song cycles and of the Schumann-Eichendorff Liederkreis, opus 39. Why do we need these 1985 pub- lications, edited by the renowned lieder singer Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Elmar Budde (the Schubert) and Hans Joachim Kohler (the Schumann), when the earlier, venerable Peters editions are so clear, us- able, and apparently faithful to the origi- nals?

As a performer, I pondered this ques- tion as I compared the new publications with the earlier editions. Since there are no no-

treatment of Hardy, demonstrating many of the maudlin proclivities that brought down Berkeley's antiwar oratorio Or Shall We Die? The most notable shortcoming is his weakness for gauche text-painting ges- tures that literally capsize the final stanzas of these otherwise uneventful strophic set- tings. In the first two songs this takes the form of ostentatious glissandi in the harp, while in the third, the last line repeats ad nauseam, like a bad Handel parody. Berke- ley has interesting melodic quirks, such as a tendency to leap a third above the ex- pected note at climactic points, but these are submerged by his insistence on unsyn- copated, plodding rhythms. With some of Hardy's bitterest pronouncements at his disposal, Berkeley vacillates between the overstated and the precious.

SAM W. RICHMOND Scottsdale Public Library

Franz Schubert. Lieder, neue Aus- gabe, Bd. I: Die schone Millerin; Winterreise; Schwanengesang. Hrsg. von Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau; Musik- wissenschaftliche Revision von Elmar Budde. Gesang und Klavier; tiefe Stimme. Frankfurt: Peters, 1985. [182 p., $38.50.]

Robert Schumann. Liederkreis, nach Gedichten von Joseph von Eichen- dorff, op. 39; fur Singstimme und Klavier. Nach den Quellen hrsg. von Hans Joachim Kohler; Originalaus- gabe fur Sopran oder Tenor. Leipzig: Peters, 1985. [Score, 30 p.; Nachwort and Revisionsbericht in Ger., 8 p., $10.00.]

The impeccably accurate publisher Pe- ters offers us here new urtext editions of the three major Schubert song cycles and of the Schumann-Eichendorff Liederkreis, opus 39. Why do we need these 1985 pub- lications, edited by the renowned lieder singer Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Elmar Budde (the Schubert) and Hans Joachim Kohler (the Schumann), when the earlier, venerable Peters editions are so clear, us- able, and apparently faithful to the origi- nals?

As a performer, I pondered this ques- tion as I compared the new publications with the earlier editions. Since there are no no-

ticeable differences between the old and the new in the music itself, one has to compare them more closely to understand why Pe- ters chose to issue the works again.

The value of these new publications lies in two areas, one scholarly and the other a broader, historical one. In both volumes, the editors have provided valuable schol- arly information about discrepancies among the original sources. Fischer-Dieskau and Budde explicitly identify the manuscript sources they are working from. They also discuss the rationale of the revisions they made and the difficulties they encoun- tered. They provide invaluable footnotes discussing interpretive matters not found in the earlier Peters editions of Schubert. In the Schumann volume, Kohler provides a similarly detailed and scholarly afterword which unfortunately is not translated into English.

In broader terms, these publications draw attention to the vitality of the song cycle as a genre and to the eternal importance of these particular cycles. Issued during a pe- riod leading up to the Schubert bicenten- nial in 1998, the Schubert volume can only increase the attention paid to the composer over the next ten years by scholars and performers.

Issuing Schumann's Liederkreis in a sep- arate publication rather than as part of a larger volume of the composer's songs draws our attention to the work as a cycle rather than as a group of songs with texts by the same poet. This encourages musicians to study and perform them as a cycle and to think of them in that capacity as they do the better known Dichterliebe and Frauen- liebe und -leben and the Schubert cycles also discussed here. The extensive afterword and revisions, however, are unhelpful to per- formers and others who don't read Ger- man. On what basis do foreign publishers decide whether or not to translate these sections (the parallel sections in the Schu- bert volume are in English)? This after- word would, in fact, be an excellent com- panion to studying the cycle since it contains an analysis of the poetry, a discussion of key relationships among individual songs, and an exposition of the origins of the cycle and the individual songs in Schumann's life and thought. I only wish this were available to all.

JANET SULLIVAN New York City

ticeable differences between the old and the new in the music itself, one has to compare them more closely to understand why Pe- ters chose to issue the works again.

The value of these new publications lies in two areas, one scholarly and the other a broader, historical one. In both volumes, the editors have provided valuable schol- arly information about discrepancies among the original sources. Fischer-Dieskau and Budde explicitly identify the manuscript sources they are working from. They also discuss the rationale of the revisions they made and the difficulties they encoun- tered. They provide invaluable footnotes discussing interpretive matters not found in the earlier Peters editions of Schubert. In the Schumann volume, Kohler provides a similarly detailed and scholarly afterword which unfortunately is not translated into English.

In broader terms, these publications draw attention to the vitality of the song cycle as a genre and to the eternal importance of these particular cycles. Issued during a pe- riod leading up to the Schubert bicenten- nial in 1998, the Schubert volume can only increase the attention paid to the composer over the next ten years by scholars and performers.

Issuing Schumann's Liederkreis in a sep- arate publication rather than as part of a larger volume of the composer's songs draws our attention to the work as a cycle rather than as a group of songs with texts by the same poet. This encourages musicians to study and perform them as a cycle and to think of them in that capacity as they do the better known Dichterliebe and Frauen- liebe und -leben and the Schubert cycles also discussed here. The extensive afterword and revisions, however, are unhelpful to per- formers and others who don't read Ger- man. On what basis do foreign publishers decide whether or not to translate these sections (the parallel sections in the Schu- bert volume are in English)? This after- word would, in fact, be an excellent com- panion to studying the cycle since it contains an analysis of the poetry, a discussion of key relationships among individual songs, and an exposition of the origins of the cycle and the individual songs in Schumann's life and thought. I only wish this were available to all.

JANET SULLIVAN New York City

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