Christoph Berner - Swan Songs (2018/2023) [Official Digital Download]

The phrase “Swan Song” would somewhat mean, admittedly, that the composers knew that their time had come, and that they wanted to bid the world adieu and give some retrospective on their life and work. Absolutely not! None of the four composer included here intended to go back ad patres any time soon, starting with Schubert whose Schwanengesang is actually a blend made posthumously by a publisher, who packed under this title some fourteen isolated Lieder, which weren’t meant to form a cycle. Baritone Christian Immler has chosen the six Lieder whose poems are from Heinrich Heine. Brahms himself, in 1896, was only lamenting the passing of Clara Schumann, but did he know that he would only outlive her for a year when he wrote his Four Serious Songs. Above all, his own swan song would be the eleven chorale preludes for organ which evoke imminent death in a poignant way—even if the four songs are greatly emotional. Samuel Barber’s Three Songs, written in 1972 for Fischer-Dieskay, are admittedly among his last works (and his ultimate opus for choir and piano), but the composer still had almost ten years to live. That being said, the crepuscular mood will escape no one’s attention, as well as the extreme focus of the discourse. Finally, on the polar opposite of this feeling, Bernstein’s Arias and Barcarolles, written in 1988—two years before his death, then—are not, absolutely not even, funeral or contemplative! This is some work of explosive vitality, deliciously conceived for baritone, mezzo and four-handed piano. For the end of this album, Immler is joined by the mezzo-soprano Anna Stéphany.

TRACKLIST

1. Christian Immler - 1. Der Atlas
2. Christian Immler - 2. Ihr Bild
3. Christian Immler - 3. Das Fischermädchen
4. Christian Immler - 4. Die Stadt
5. Christian Immler - 5. Am Meer
6. Christian Immler - 6. Der Doppelgänger
7. Christian Immler - 1. Denn es gehet dem Menschen wie dem Vieh
8. Christian Immler - 2. Ich wandte mich und sahe an alle
9. Christian Immler - 3. O Tod, O Tod, wie bitter bist du
10. Christian Immler - 4. Wenn ich mit Menschen- und Engelszungen redete
11. Christian Immler - 1. Now Have I fed and easten up the rose
12. Christian Immler - 2. A Green Lowland of Pianos
13. Christian Immler - Three Songs, Op. 45: 3. O Boundless, Boundless Evening
14. Christian Immler - I. Prelude
15. Christian Immler - II. Love Duet (For Jave)
16. Christian Immler - III. Little Smary (for S.A.B.)
17. Christian Immler - IV. The Love of My Life (to SWZ. for KO)
18. Christian Immler - V. Greetings (for J.G.)
19. Christian Immler - VI. Oif Mayn Kash'neh (At My Wedding) (for M.T.T.)
20. Christian Immler - VII. Mr. and Mrs. Webb Say Goodnight (for Mino and Lezbo)
21. Christian Immler - VIII. Nachspiel (P0stlude) (In Memoriam)



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