Schumann - Frage

The Guardian 100

Schumann brings out the best in baritone Christian Gerhaher on this striking recording with pianist Gerold Huber

Over the next two years, the baritone Christian Gerhaher and his regular pianist, Gerold Huber, plan to record all of Schumann’s songs. Rather than launch the project with the celebrated cycles, such as Dichterliebe or the two Liederkreis, they begin with a selection of lesser-known groups ranging across Schumann’s songwriting career, from his initial “year of song” in 1840 to the early 1850s. The most substantial – the 12 songs in Kerner Lieder, Op 35 (one of which, Frage, gives the title to the disc) – dominates the collection. That cycle dates from 1840, while despite the late opus number, the Four Songs, Op 142 also contain three numbers from that year – two originally intended for Dichterliebe and one left over from the Kerner collection.

Gerhaher wrote an essay for the liner notes, in which he not only reveals a fascinating insight into his dramatic approach to this music but also his sheer enthusiasm for it. There is no doubt that Schumann brings the very best out of him. If some of Gerhaher’s London recitals in recent years have been short on spontaneity (as if his impeccable diction and astonishing control of colour and verbal nuance had become a bit automatic), there is no sense of any kind of routine on this album.