San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Schumann
Classical
NA new Schumann recording by the great German baritone Christian Gerhaher and pianist Gerold Huber would be an exciting arrival under any circumstances. But now consider that this collection of beautiful and probing performances is just the first installment in a complete set of Schumann’s songs that promises to roll out in the coming years, and you see what a major development is afoot. It’s one thing to bring a scholarly interpretive approach to German art songs – plenty of singers do as much – but another to supplement that with singing as eloquent and vibrantly colored as Gerhaher’s, which alternates as needed between keen, delicately pointed phrasing and robust expostulations. Huber’s contributions are marvelous, shimmering and shapely, and even the planning here is canny: Instead of beginning with the more obviously familiar offerings, Gerhaher plunges in with the elegant but little-known late songs of Op. 107, giving them readings that are full of telling details. Later, Gerhaher gives a master class in miniature scene-painting with the Kerner songs of Op. 35, and he winds up with an account of the Op. 142 songs that is both commanding and inviting. Volume 2 is due early next year. — Joshua Kosman