At 03:00 PM 5/20/2006, Mitch Friedfeld wrote:

>Any favorite recordings of Die schoene Muellerin out there?

Since Mitch did not ask for expertise but only for favorite recordings,
I feel qualified to offer mine.  All three of my favorite recordings are
by tenors.  I do have several baritone recordings but they don't come
to mind.

My preferred German recordings are resp.  by a German tenor and an
English tenor: (1)Werner Guera (with Jan Schultsz [sic] piano) and (2)
Ian Partidge (with sister Jennifer piano).  The first is on Harmonia
Mundi from 2000 while the second is on EMI Classics for Pleasure from
1973.

I was so excited when I learned that Partridge's recording had appeared
on CD that I ordered it from a UK Amazon Seller and then a few weeks
later it showed up at Berkshire where it may still be.

For years I have sought music that Partridge recorded that simultaneously
is music that I care about.  I am not too interested in English music.
He is the only singer in Davis's original Les Troyens (singing Iopas)
who ever appealed to me at all.

His Winterreise (on AS) I once saw and left and then it was gone.  One
always has to make decisions about both money and time.  Would that both
were infinite.

My preferred tenor non-German recording is that of the super-duper Russian
tenor Georgi Vinogradov (with pianist Georgi B.  Orentlikher) from 1954.

This is most readily available in a 4CD Guild set devoted to this amazing
singer.  The set has superb notes by Larry Friedman.

If Lieder in a wrong language sounds like a strange Idea, it is but,
when the artistry is so fine, it can be wonderful.

Likewise there is a fascinating air-check recording of Winterreise
(circulates privately) in Russian by the Ukrainian bass Boris Hmyria
(usually known by the Russian form of his last name as Gmyria (there
being no /h/ sound in Russian and a /g/ normally substituted for foreign
/h/).  I find it very fine indeed but some friends find it very strange.

The only thing I ever find strange is when a non-speaker of a language
sings the language without understanding the words and thus not being
able to express meaning inherent in words.

Not connected with that I must fess up to having the same Bostridge
reaction as Mitch does.

While on this subject I take the opportunity to recommend Beno Blachut's
recording of Diary of One Who Disappeared.  It is coupled with Gedda's
recording of the same work.  Here there can be no question that nobody
will repeat or match Blachut's magical Czech recording of a work that
most of us grew up with in a German translation, namely that of Ernst
Haefliger, a recording that I have outgrown.

The names of the resp.  female singers on each of the three recordings
(the two in Czech and the one in German) just mentioned would take
checking on my part and is not necessary for locating the recordings.

Thanks to Mitch for the opportunity to expatiate on some of my favorites.

Yoel