Paul Juon - Lieder (Maria Riccarda Wesseling; Clau Scherrer)

Information

Composer: Paul Juon

1. Erinnerung, Op. 13 No. 2
2. Regen, Op. 21 No. 1
3. Jugend, Op. 13 No. 3
4. Die drei Schwestern, Op. 99 No. 2
5. Das Mädchen, Op. 2 No. 2
6. Das verlassene Mädchen, Op. 2: No. 1
7. Klage der Gattin, Op. 13 No. 1
8. Der einsame Pfeifer, Op. 21 No. 3
9. Paradies, Op. 99 No. 1
10. Märchen, Op. 21 No. 2
11. Wiegenlied, Op. 13 No. 4
12. Ukrainian folk songs: Kosakenliebe
13. Ukrainian folk songs: Es brüllt und stöhnt der breite Dnjepr
14. Ukrainian folk songs: Leise, leise, spiele Tschumak
15. Ukrainian folk songs: Ging eine Maid am blauen Meer
16. Russian folk songs: Es sassen holde Mägdelein
17. Russian folk songs: Rekrutenlied
18. Russian folk songs: Wo hat sich mein Liebster versteckt?
19. Russian folk songs: Sprudle, kleines Bächlein
20. Russian folk songs: Hab' acht, vergänglicher Mensch
21. Jewish folk songs: Hör nur, schönes Mägdelein
22. Jewish folk songs: Ale, lule, lule
23. Jewish folk songs: Wiegenlied
24. Jewish folk songs: Auf dem kleinen Herd

Maria Riccarda Wesseling, mezzo-soprano

Clau Scherrer, piano

Date: 2016

Label: Coviello

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

Review

Paul Juon (1872-1940) was born in Russia into a German-Swiss expat family and studied at the Moscow Conservatory, though from 1904 he was based in Berlin, eventually emigrating to Switzerland after the Nazi acquisition of power. He is primarily remembered as a composer of chamber music, and his Lieder and folk-song collections remained in limbo until they were rediscovered by the Swiss mezzo Maria Riccarda Wesseling during research at Lausanne University. Her Juon programme was originally intended as a birthday present to her mother, who comes from the same canton as the composer’s family.

‘Can you still play the old songs?’ Juon asks in the opening ‘Erinnerung’, to which a descending Schumannesque piano phrase answers in the affirmative. A sense of rootless nostalgia pervades his music, and his songs to some extent form an at times conservative dialogue with tradition. There are echoes of Schubert in ‘Das Mädchen’ and of Wolf in ‘Jugend’, with its declamatory vocal line over a shepherd’s pipe melody that hovers uneasily between major and minor. He was keen on folk music and one notices a fondness for strophic forms. There are moments of rebellion: ‘Klage der Gattin’ turns expressionist in its depiction of a wife confronted by her husband’s adultery; ‘Paradies’ has a harmonically drifting accompaniment worthy of Scriabin. Wesseling includes three of his folk collections – Jewish, Ukrainian and Russian – that veer, paradoxically, towards art songs with their sparse, aphoristic piano-writing.

She and pianist Clau Scherrer are persuasive guides through Juon’s world. Wesseling’s voice is expressive if grainy, and she has a finely understated way with words. In the folk songs, one notices the ironic smile in her tone as a macho Cossack is dumped by his girlfriend in the Ukrainian set, and a refined sensuality as a corresponding Russian pair meet furtively by a brook. The Lieder proper are all little dramas, with moods and characters carefully etched. Scherrer is a wonderful accompanist, subtle, clear and alert throughout. A disc of great sincerity, beautifully done.

-- Tim Ashley, Gramophone

More review:
http://musicweb-international.com/classRev/2016/Dec/Juon_lieder_COV91612.htm

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

Paul Juon (6 March 1872 – 21 August 1940) was a Russian-born Swiss composer. Juon studied at the Moscow Conservatory with Jan Hřímalý, Anton Arensky and Sergei Taneyev. He also studies at the Hochschule für Musik in Berlin with Woldemar Bargiel. During his time in Berlin he was a composition professor, employed by Joseph Joachim. Juon's works include many sonatas, 4 symphonies, 4 string quartets, several piano trios, piano quartets and piano quintets, a sextet, 3 violin concerti, piano works and lieder, as well as a number of stage works. Several of these works have been recorded.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Juon

***

Maria Riccarda Wesseling is a Swiss-Dutch operatic mezzo-soprano.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Riccarda_Wesseling

https://www.mariariccardawesseling.com/

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

FLAC, tracks

Links in comment

Enjoy!