SCHUMANN: Eichendorff Lieder, Op. 39; Kulmann Lieder, Op. 104; Frauenliebe und Leben, Op. 42 – Vivian Hanner, mezzo-soprano/ Frank Peter, piano – Genuin 10532, 57:28 [Distr. by Naxos] ***:
This album brings together two of Schumann’s greatest cycles, the Op. 39, perhaps his greatest, written at the time when the composer was trying to gain access in the courtship of Clara. Its disparate poems speak of many moods and concerns, the music alone tying them together. It is perhaps the most difficult of Schumann’s song cycles to pull off, and no one has done it better than Kate Royal on Hyperion (part of the Schumann series).
The Op. 42 is one of the most popular, a study in the romantic vision of women and womanhood, the eight songs taking one through the mature feelings of a woman at different times and events of her life. The novelty here, if I can put it that way, is the 1851 Kulmann Lieder, which treats the thoughts and considerations of a 17-year-old girl who is facing her own early death. This cycle is different from those of the song years of Schumann’s output, more measured and steady, reflective and curiously removed albeit possessing a quiet stoicism, like the piano music of those last years in Düsseldorf.
I wish I could be more enthusiastic about the performances. While Hanner has a bold and rich mezzo voice, it proves too monochromatic in these works that demand coloration, and there are some slight intonation problems as well, especially in the Op. 39. Her Op. 42 is much better, more sensitive to the textual considerations, and many will want this primarily for the Op. 104 which has very few recordings. With those caveats, proceed as you wish. Pianist Frank Peter’s contributions are steady and reliable, and the sound slightly close, something that doesn’t always handle Hanner’s habit of crescendo on held notes.
— Steven Ritter
