My ecstatic review of the 1977 Salzburg recital devoted to Hugo Wolf’s Goethe Lieder featuring Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Sviatoslav Richter (type Q2287 in Search Reviews) mentioned their earlier 1973 DG Mörike Lieder program from Innsbruck. It’s now available again via Arkivmusic.com’s on-demand reprint program, complete with texts and translations. No Wolf lover can afford to miss it.
There are numerous felicities to savor, and many more to discover. Listen to how Fischer-Dieskau’s rhythmic bite and impeccable diction in Jägerlied still manage to impart a sense of legato, or, by contrast, a dulcet sotto voce in the diminuendos of Peregina I’s opening phrases. Who else can get away with outsize dynamics in Lebe wohl and avoid melodrama, yet manage a rare fusion of tenderness and austerity in the often sentimentalized Verborgenheit? I can answer that question in two words: Sviatoslav Richter. This pianist takes not one note of Wolf’s frequently unwieldy piano parts for granted, whether making Fussreise’s interludes sound simpler than they actually are to play well, or effortlessly sailing through Abschied’s wacky postlude with a straight face. Just one question: Why was the original LP’s opening and closing audience omitted from the CD reissue? [3/11/2010]
