SCHUBERT. LIEDER—VOLUME 3. Diet- rich Fischer-Dieskau (baritone), Ger- ald Moore (piano). DGG 2720 059 (four records, nas, L7.50). Limited Edition until January 31st, 1973. Texts and translations included.

Die schOne Miillerin, D795. Winterreise, D911. Schwanengesang, D957.

Coupled as above:

Fischer-Dieskau, Moore D795 (11182) ASD481 D911 (11/83) ASD551-2 D957 (9/83) ASD544

For many record collectors over 40 years of age it may still seem strange that a major interpreter should record the same work more than once; we used to believe that once an interpretation was committed to disc it was committed for good. Nevertheless, few serious musical executants admire their own recordings; by the time the record is issued the interpreter is probably having second thoughts with what he/she did and is anxious to start again. Many must have been thankful when the advent of stereo gave an excuse for replacing that imperfect mono recording with something more mature and perfectionist.

Meanwhile Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau has been able to jump the gun, thanks to his mammoth Schubert enterprise for DGG which necessarily involved a remake of the three major song-collections comprised in this box. He is possibly the most thoughtful, seriously self-renewing singer of our time, singing a vast repertory and changing his approach as well as perfecting niceties of detail all the time. He deserved the opportunity to re-record these major Schubert works (I will not call them song-cycles because Schwanengesang is not one, though the others do tell a consecutive story) after a personal development of ten or eleven years.

The art of recording has advanced since 1962. DGG can now present these three collections on four records with a band between each song for easy identification. The surfaces are characteristically noiseless; but if those of the HMV discs listed above sound noisier, that may be because they have been played a lot. The DGG balance seems more sophisticated, suggesting that the mike is placed in about the fifth row of the auditorium instead of right in front of the performers. This should be all gain. The DGG sound is distinctly more spacious and beautiful, with an audible halo of air in which the tones can expand and breathe. Fischer-Dieskau's voice has become more ample in the meanwhile, too, the vibrato more generous; and the interpretation of this glorious partnership has grown more classical, more refined and exalted, able to make points with minimal means. These factors in performance benefit from the greater distancing of the sound-source, and yet not all. The new interpretations ultimately communicate the music less powerfully than the HMV ones of ten years ago. They sound too refined, too aloof, for Schubert's vivid dramas of jilted lovers. And then, though it is a tiny point that does not disturb appreciation, it is in the new set that Fischer-Dieskau's voice occasionally and unexpectedly distorts, not in the closemiked HMV where the tone is as clean as a whistle, however intense and dramatic.

Of the three song-sets Winterreise gets the strongest performance; it is the masterpiece, surely the song-cycle that lasts longest and offers most interpretative possibilities of any in the current repertory. In the third verse of "Gute Nacht" the vocal line and lovely phrasing, and the emotional involvement, captivates the sensitive ear; the piano postlude is exemplary. "Tauschung" is superbly done by both artists, and "Im Dorfe" is given a fascinating, idiosyncratic performance (about the unsleeping protagonist, not about dogs or snoring citizens). "Der Wegweiser", where the jilted lover recognizes that he cannot turn back, is exceptionally moving. Yet, when this new reading is compared with that of 1963, Fischer-Dieskau's voice sounds more natural, eagerly expressive, more resonant and Gerald Moore's pianism more eloquent in the earlier version. Compare "Auf dem Flusse" in both versions and you will appreciate the difference. Some details in the new DGG are illuminating (e.g. the understatement of "Der Leiermann") but it gives a less cogent impression of the performance by these artists which has sent me, unable to speak, from the concert-hall, so disturbed that I could hardly bring myself to write about it, though that is my job.

Die se/One Miillerin carries a less violent emotional impact though the final songs are as powerful, the earlier ones exquisitely beautiful. The true simplicity of "0 Bachlein, meine Liebe" in "Der Neugierige" in this performance is admirable and moving. Often I noted the rich, revealing artistry of Gerald Moore's musical pointing, in switches from minor to major or vice versa, in dramatic timing ; sometimes the DGG version betrays an unmusical haste. In every case the HMV record (two sides without bands, not three) is more vivid. In the last song, "Des Baches Wiegenlied", the feeling is too hasty, the lullaby after drowning uncommunicated; and this is where Pears and Britten (Decca SXL2200, 6/60) score with a perfect tempo, totally unhurried, and a vocal line of moving suavity and seamlessness (listen to the last verse about the expanse of Heaven)— though the recorded quality is much fainter. Beside this the new DGG seems deplorably mechanical, as though the drowned swain had been fed into a computer.

Schwanengesang is a bipartite concoction: some songs to words by the seldom inspiring Rellstab ("Leise flehen" is rightly the best known, though "Abschied" is the finest song), some by Heine, the greatest songs Schubert ever wrote; they make me wish he had set more, and lived to set HOlderlin, not to mention Rilke. There is a great deal to admire in these performances, a little to disappoint : some unsteady singing, some dull piano-playing. Again comparison shows that "Aufenthalt" was more cogently sung in the earlier HMV version, though best of all by Hotter whose Schwanengesang, when he was vocally at his peak, must be a 'Best Buy' for those who can find it (HMV mono XLP30102-3, 6/68—now deleted). Hotter must have greatly influenced FischerDieskau and it is worth seeking his Lieder records out. Fischer-Dieskau knows how to learn by example and turn the lesson to individual account. The price of this new box must attract many collectors: if they are new to the game they will pounce and not be disappointed. But discerning devotees of the German Lied ought to listen to Fischer-Dieskau's HMV versions; they are less sophisticated in engineering, more vivid in every other respect. But do not forget Hotter or Pears. W.S.M.