Various Composers - Jugendstil (Camilla Tilling; Paul Rivinius)

Information

• (01) Erich Wolfgang Korngold - Einfache Lieder, Op. 9: Nos. 1, 3, 4 & 6
• (05) Erich Wolfgang Korngold - Fünf Lieder, Op. 38: No. 1, Glückwunsch
• (06) Alban Berg - Sieben frühe Lieder
• (13) Alexander Zemlinsky - Walzer-Gesänge, Op. 6
• (19) Arnold Schoenberg - 4 Lieder, Op. 2
• (23) Gustav Mahler - Rückert Lieder

Camilla Tilling, soprano
Paul Rivinius, piano

Date: 2019
Label: BIS Records
https://bis.se/performers/tilling-camilla/jugendstil-songs-1898-1916

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Review

Like so many terms borrowed from the other arts, Jugendstil is not easy to pinpoint in music. This recital from Camilla Tilling and Paul Rivinius could also, then, simply be called ‘Vienna: fin de siècle’, had not Barbara Hannigan already used it for her similar programme (Alpha, 12/18). Tilling’s programme similarly features the delicate, highly perfumed chromaticisms of Schoenberg’s Op 2 and Berg’s Seven Early Songs. She represents Zemlinsky with his rarely heard Op 6 and adds in Korngold (his lovely ‘Glückwunsch’ of 1948, the only song to take us out of an otherwise concentrated time period).

While Hannigan plumped for Alma Mahler, here we have Gustav: Tilling concludes with the Rückert Lieder, and they find her at her very best. It’s difficult to resist the purity of her sound, the loveliness of her pearly, bright tone, especially in the first three songs (as ordered here). She is impressively sturdy and unflinching in ‘Um Mitternacht’, too, while for ‘Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen’ she and Rivinius are joined by the violinist Nicola Birkhan in an arrangement ‘devised by the performers’ after the orchestral version. The performance itself can’t be faulted for sensitivity, but three feels to me like a bit of a crowd in this configuration.

There’s a great deal to enjoy in the rest of the programme, with Tilling bringing beguiling tone and unfailing musicality to some intoxicating songs, generally favouring a more conventional, less minxy approach than Hannigan. Rivinius is reliably superb in the often knotty, overwrought piano-writing. Away from the familiar Mahler, though, the soprano’s German is often indistinct and lacking in definition, with specifics sacrificed to general polish. Otherwise, though, this rewarding programme is beautifully performed and recorded.

-- Hugo Shirley, Gramophone

More reviews:
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2020/Feb/Jugendstil_songs_BIS2414.htm
https://artmusiclounge.wordpress.com/2019/12/13/camilla-tillings-new-recital/
https://www.limelightmagazine.com.au/reviews/jugendstil-songs-1898-1916-camilla-tilling-paul-rivinius/

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Camilla Tilling (born May 18, 1971 in Linköping) is a Swedish soprano. She studied at the Högskolan för scen och musik in Göteborg (1997–98) and at the Royal College of Music in London, where she graduated in 1998. Her opera debut was the role of Olympia in Offenbach's The Tales of Hoffmann in Göteborg in 1997. Since then Tilling has appeared at such venues as the New York City Opera, Covent Garden, La Monnaie, the Metropolitan Opera, and La Scala, as well numerous festivals. Her first solo recording is Rote Rosen, Lieder by Richard Strauss, accompanied by Paul Rivinius, was released in 2009.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camilla_Tilling

***

Pianist Paul Rivinius, born in 1970, studied at the Musikhochschule in Saarbrücken and the Frankfurt Musikhochschule. His teachers include Marie-Luise Neunecker (horn), Raymund Havenith and Gerhard Oppitz (piano). As a chamber musician, he won several prizes with the Clemente Trio, founded in 1986. Rivinius also plays in the Rivinius Piano Quartet together with his brothers Benjamin, Gustav and Siegfried. Since 2004 he has also been pianist of the Mozart Piano Quartet. Rivinius was part of numerous radio and CD productions. He taught at the “Hanns Eisler” Academy of Music in Berlin.
http://paulrivinius.com/

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

FLAC, tracks

Links in comment

Enjoy!