# Favourite Lieder, Mélodies & Art Song Albums



## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

What are your favourite albums of German Lieder, French Mélodies or English and other language Art Songs?


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## StlukesguildOhio (Dec 25, 2006)




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## StlukesguildOhio (Dec 25, 2006)




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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

Wow! :tiphat: I'm going to take a close look at those!


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## StlukesguildOhio (Dec 25, 2006)

Vocal music is without a doubt my favorite genre... whether opera, madrigals, choral music, or art songs (lieder, mélodies, romances, etc...). The above works are nowhere near the whole of my collection of "art songs"... but they include a good majority of the recordings of such that I find "essential".


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

I've picked up a couple of great box sets including Janet Baker's EMI recordings, and the Hugo Wolf set. Also love the Mahler/Boulez/Von Otter CD pictured above. I've been trying to decide on a Poulenc set, but haven't made up my mind. And I love the Boulez/Schoenberg recordings, and Berg's Seven Early Songs.


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

^ While perusing Hugo Wolf's Lieder, I discovered a forgotten masterpiece, his comic opera Der Corregidor.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)




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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Sorry - this post was a mistake.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)




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## Heliogabo (Dec 29, 2014)

I think you should check this as well:









just like a Lieder party :cheers:


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## Bruce (Jan 2, 2013)

*Songs*



StlukesguildOhio said:


> et. al....


Nice list! I'll be referring to this for quite a while in the future, as I'm still pretty much a novice when it comes to appreciating lieder. My own list is much more modest, consisting of only three works:

Fauré









F. X. Mozart









and Gounod


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## Figleaf (Jun 10, 2014)

^^ I cannot recommend John McCormack's Lieder recordings highly enough, though his German may make a real German cringe!










^^ This CD is only half Lieder, but again, the singing cannot be recommended highly enough. He's the only singer whose Lieder recordings rival John's.


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## Figleaf (Jun 10, 2014)

^^ For French melodie, it doesn't get any better than the gorgeous Gerard Souzay. The earlier recordings, often with the pianist Jacqueline Bonneau, show the voice at its most luscious.









^^ This CD has some of his quite early recordings too.









^^ As the 1960s progressed, both timbre and style became less ingratiating, but Souzay is still in fine form here. He sings the most seductive version ever of Hahn's 'La Barcheta', and a beautifully manly performance of the Villa Lobos song.










^^ This one is probably my favourite- singing so beautiful you can hardly believe it! Again it's Souzay captured quite early in his career when his silky yet virile performances of melodie were at their best. It wasn't really until some time in the 60s that he really came into his own as a singer of Lieder, though, and his Winterreise is the best I've ever heard. Last time I looked, it was still on Youtube. Give me Souzay over Fischer-Dieskau any day of the week!


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## Figleaf (Jun 10, 2014)

For Die Schoene Muellerin (excuse the lack of umlauts on this keyboard) I would choose, not Souzay on this occasion, but Peter Schreier, Franz Naval and Peter Pears, in that order.

While I'm still on the subject of Schubert, I have to mention this amazing recording of 'Am Meer', which doesn't come from a CD devoted to Lieder, but it's a very beautiful and intense performance by the important tenor Gustav Walter, who may be the earliest-born major singer to record a Schubert song:


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## Figleaf (Jun 10, 2014)

For melodies ranging from Gounod to Les Six, this set is fantastic, though I don't know if Pierre Bernac's dryish timbre will be to everyone's taste.










And who better to sing the songs of Reynaldo Hahn than the composer himself, who also accompanies his partner Guy Ferrant and others:










I also like Hugues Cuenod very much, though my remarks about Bernac's voice probably apply equally to Cuenod's too.










No such caveats need apply to this excellent CD of Satie songs performed by Nicolai Gedda and Gabriel Bacquier:










And obviously don't forget the thread on French melodie on this forum, which is a brilliant source of recommendations and Youtube links.


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## Bradius (Dec 11, 2012)

Anything by Mahler and Schubert's Die Mulleren are my tops. Winteresse is great too. Love DFD!!!


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## jenspen (Apr 25, 2015)

Two of the 4 CDs that leapt to mind have already been posted - The Gerard Souzay Faure and Chausson Chansons and the Fischer-Dieskau Winterreise with Jorg Demus. 

The Fischer-Dieskau/Gerald Moore 1957or 1958 set of Wolf's Moerike Lieder (EMI 7 63563 2) seems to be unavailable so it'll be the first inanimate thing I'll grab if the house is burning down.

I owe my introduction to Lieder to the young silvery-voiced Elly Ameling - whose recording with Dalton Baldwin of songs of Schubert and Schumann is ravishing. Harmonia Mundi D-7800 which also doesn't seem to be available. Edit: this is not the (later?) collection which includes Frauenliebe und -leben.


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## Barbebleu (May 17, 2015)

Brahms Lieder sung by Fischer-Dieskau and Jessye Norman, Richard Strauss Lieder with F-D and Gerald Moore, Wolf Lieder with F-D and Elisabeth Schwarzkopf.


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