Schubert: The fair maid of the mill - Franz Schubert's Die schöne Müllerin in a new English version by Jeremy Sams
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FRANZ SCHUBERT
Schubert: The fair maid of the mill - Franz Schubert's Die schöne Müllerin in a new English version by Jeremy Sams
Nicky Spence (tenor), Christopher Glynn (piano)
[ Signum / CD ]
Release Date: Friday 20 May 2022
This item is currently out of stock. We expect to be able to supply it to you within 2 - 4 weeks from when you place your order.
The story was not a new one. As places of romantic adventure, mills have a long literary history, stretching back to some of Europe's oldest songs and stories. Typically, a young man (shy, poetic, a singer of songs) finds work at a mill, falls in love with the beautiful maid who lives there, but loses her to a co-worker (often a hunter) who is more attractive and exciting. Grain-these old tales all tell us-is not the only thing to be crushed and transformed in mills.
So why a new English version of Die schöne Mullerin? It is often (and rightly) said that the essence of Lieder is in the close marriage of words and music. But it is also in the immediacy of the storytelling. And for English-speaking audiences that storytelling can sometimes seem to take place at one remove. Even those who understand German words will not have the same emotional response to it as they do to their mother tongue. A good translation is an act of discovery-a retelling, not a replacement. I commissioned this modern English version of Fair Maid in the hope that, like a good screen adaptation of a classic novel, it could bring a masterpiece to a new audience, as well as offering a fresh perspective to those who know it well.
"Nicky Spence's diction is so pellucid as to render the provision of the English texts almost superfluous but such thoughtfulness on the part of the label remains a welcome gesture. Any tenor who embarks upon a recording of this cycle will be conscious of the shade of predecessors such as Aksel Schiøtz and Fritz Wunderlich looming over his shoulder, and while Spence's voice does not quite have the poetic intimacy of Schiøtz or the melting tenderness of Wunderlich's, his is still a beautiful, flexible, easily-produced sound which never falters; his tone encompasses both sweetness and power as required and his knack of placing just the right emphasis or applying a momentary pause in the words without unduly disrupting the vocal line is apparent throughout." MusicWeb Recording of the Month June 2022
Tracks:
1 Somewhere A miller loves to sit and dream of somewhere [2'34]
2 Where now? Was that the sound of water? [2'24]
3 Stop! As you led me through the forest [1'30]
4 A thank you to the stream Were you leading me here? [2'15]
5 The end of a long day's work If I had the strength of a giant [2'35]
6 Curiosity I wouldn't ask the rainbow [4'01]
7 Impatience I want to carve it deep on every tree [2'38]
8 Good morning All I did was say 'Good morning' [4'19]
9 The miller's flowers Beside the mill, beside the stream [3'27]
10 Tears like rain We sat in easy silence [4'07]
11 Mine! Millstream stop your rushing sound [2'23]
12 Interlude I have hung my lute from a nail by the door [4'54]
13 The green ribbon Shame that the nice green piece of braid [1'51]
14 The huntsman So what are you hunting for down by the mill [1'17]
15 Jealousy and pride I know why you are flowing so fast today [1'38]
16 Her favourite colour I'd dress in weeping willow [4'12]
17 The hated colour I'd love to travel around the world [2'13]
18 Withered flowers You lovely flowers the flowers she gave [3'50]
19 The miller and the brook When true hearts are broken [4'11]
20 The brook sings a lullaby Good night, good night [6'54]
