top
Home Labels Contact
An die Musik - Famous Songs by Franz Schubert
Franz Schubert

An die Musik - Famous Songs by Franz Schubert

Klaus Mertens / Tini Mathot

Label: Challenge Classics
Format: CD
Barcode: 0608917255928
barcode
Catalog number: CC 72559
Releasedate: 31-05-12
The famous songs of Schubert, like Erlkönig, An die Musik, Prometheus, Die Forelle, Du bist die Ruh and many more, selected by Klaus Mertens and Tini Mathot. The duo shed their unique light and fresh view on these songs which we all love so much and which have universal themes that appeal to everyone, in Schubert's time and in our modern time.
  • Tini Mathot plays a fortepiano of Mathias Müller, Vienna (around 1810)
  • Tini Mathot is a renowned harpsichord and fortepiano player and is known for her production of recordings of her husband Ton Koopman she produced this Schubert recording as well, together with Ton Koopman
  • Mathot works in tight collaboration with her husband (and former teacher) Ton Koopman with whom she regularly performs in concert halls all over the world
  • Klaus Mertens frequently appears at such venues as the Lucerne Festival, the BBC Proms, the Mostly Mozart Festival of New York, the Salzburg Festival, the Prague Spring, Bach-Tage Berlin, the Flanders Festival, the Oxford Handel Festival, and many others
  • He is highly regarded as a Lieder singer. Mertens has frequently appeared on European television and radio broadcast concerts.
  • Mertens has established a major concert career and has made over 100 recordings
  • He has worked with leading interpreters in the early music/authentic performance school -- for example, Ton Koopman, with whom he participated in a complete set of the Bach cantatas
  • Furthermore with René Jacobs, Philippe Herreweghe, Sigiswald Kuijken, Frans Brüggen, Gustav Leonhardt, and Nikolaus Harnoncourt,Gerard Schwarz, Peter Schreier, Edo de Waart, Herbert Blomstedt, Ivan Fischer, and Hans Vonk
Bas-bariton Klaus Mertens and Tini Mathot on fortepiano share with us famous songs of Franz Schubert. Songs like Erlkönig, An die Musik, Prometheus, Die Forelle, Du bist die Ruh and many more have been selected by the duo and they give us their illuminating vision and version of songs we all know so well and love so much. The reason why these songs are so timeless is because they have universal emotions and themes and they speak to all of us in every day and age. The songs stay alive by the performance of superb musicians like Mertens and Mathot.

About the works on this cd: Schubert understands the song as a work of art by two independent authors, the poet and the composer. Thus there is hardly a complete Schubert lied manuscript to be found (this is naturally different in sketches and studies) in which the poet is not named and, what is more, immediately with the title of the song.

The three fundamental parameters of the song – text, melody, accompaniment – must in principle be of equal status. The text provides the basis, content and form of the song; the melody makes it singable, the accompaniment interprets it.

The circumstances of Schubert’s life show a close relationship to poetry. Poets were strongly represented in his circle of friends, evenings of readings (sometimes several times a week) made him familiar with the latest literature. The readings were followed by discussions on questions of poetry. Thus it seems quite natural that no other musical genre interested him so intensively (throughout his entire life) as much as the song. And there were two poets whose works he continually set to music during this time: Schiller (since his early youth) and Goethe (since reading Faust in the autumn of 1814). (From the linernotes written by Walther Dürr)

Poetry by Schiller,Goethe and other poets set to music by Schubert on this beautiful cd!