Songs without words (CD)
Composers: Schumann, Brahms, Mendelssohn, Schubert, Liszt, Grieg, Debussy, Poulenc, Janácek, Bartok, Britten
Performer: Julius Drake
Label: Atma Classique
ASIN: B002QEXC26
Tracklisting:
Robert Schumann: Album für die Jugend Op. 68
1 Mignon
2 Melodie
Johannes Brahms: Drei Intermezzi Op. 117
3 No. 1 in E flat major
Felix Mendelssohn: Lied ohne Worte
4 No. 12, Op. 30, No. 6, “Veneziani
5 No. 18, Op. 38, No. 6, “Duetto”
Franz Schubert: Six moments musicaux D. 780
6 No. 2 Andantino in A flat major
7 Franz Liszt: Der Doppelgänger
Edvard Grieg: Lyric peices Vol 3
8 Erotik
Claude Debussy: Suite bergamasque
9 Clair de Lune
Francis Poulenc: Histoire de Babar
10 Berceuse
Leos Janácek: On an overgrown path
11 The Maddona of Friedek
Bela Bartok: Mikrokosmos
12 Melody
13 Like a Folksong
14 Melody in the Mist
15 Nottorno
Benjamin Britten: Holiday diary Op. 5
16 Night
Robert Schumann: Kinderszenen Op. 15
17 No. 12 Kind im Einschlummern
Click the ATMA link to listen to track samples
Renowned as one of the best accompanists working today, British pianist Julius Drake has chosen the ATMA label to record his first solo CD, Songs without words. Drake conceived this recording as a personal journal on the piano, and performs selections from Johannes Brahms’ Intermezzi, Felix Mendelssohn’s Lieder ohne Worte (Songs without words), and Franz Schubert Moments musicaux, among others.
Julius Drake is a specialist in chamber music, which he performs with many of the world’s greatest artists both in recital and on recordings.
This is Julius Drake’s second CD with ATMA. In 2008, he accompanied Canadian baritone Nathan Berg on a recording of lieder by Brahms, Strauss, Schumann, and Schubert.
photo courtesy of Atma classique
What the critics say
Peter Kristian Mose, The Whole Note
Julius Drake is a sought-after English pianist who devotes most of his career to accompanying singers, typically intelligent art song recitalists of the calibre of tenor Ian Bostridge and Canadian baritone Gerald Finley. Here he has returned to his solo piano roots while still saluting the song idea, by crafting a tender program of short lyrical character pieces, many of them familiar to the piano student or the adult amateur player.
The title of the CD pays homage to Felix Mendelssohn, two of whose Songs Without Words are included, a Venetian gondola song and the Duetto. Schumann is represented by two Album for the Young selections, and one from Scenes from Childhood. There is a Brahms Intermezzo, a Schubert Moment Musical, a Grieg Lyric Piece, and Debussy’s Clair de Lune. You get the concept: Romantic-era brevity and intimacy.
More recent selections are a lullaby by Poulenc, four of Bartók’s Mikrokosmos pieces, and the haunting, spare “Night” from Benjamin Britten’s Holiday Diary (1934), a suite I’ve never encountered on any piano recital.
Recorded in London, England by Canadian sound engineer and ATMA label founder Johanne Goyette, Drake’s songful renderings are restrained and polished. The Steinway employed sounds both present and resonant.
A lovely, “small” release. This would make a nice gift to any music lover who shuns thunder.
Highly respected English accompanist Julius Drake has released a solo disc of 17 quiet, solo-piano pieces that are a sort of aural comfort food.
This is not technically challenging music, nor is it loud or brash. Rather, these quiet little stories in sound from the late 19th and early 20th centuries will strip away your cares and leave you feeling quietly refreshed. This is a scented bubble bath rendered by two sensitive hands at a piano.
Jessica Duchen, BBC Music Magazine
Performance: 4½ out of 5 stars
Sound: 5 out of 5 stars
From the title Songs Without Words, one might guess that Julius Drake’s 2011 album of piano music was either a) all Mendelssohn or b) all Romantic miniatures with a similar mood. It is something close to answer b, but actually is more than that. Drake’s choices are mainly of the dreamy, slow ilk, but because he expands his choices beyond the Romantic era, there is a wider variety of harmonies and textures than most collections of adagios. He also includes some unexpected and well-suited excerpts of suites not often heard outside of collections of those particular composers’ works, such as the “Berceuse” from Poulenc’s L’histoire de Babar and “Night” from Britten’s Holiday Diary, Op. 5. Putting his program into a very rough chronological order, Drake begins with Schumann, Brahms, and Mendelssohn, three giants of 18th century German music who knew their way around Lieder composition, which is Drake’s objective here: to bring out the song-like qualities of piano works. Drake spends most of his performing and recording time collaborating with vocalists, so he also knows the ins and outs of melody and accompaniment. The outer sections of the Brahms’ Intermezzo are truly like a lullaby, while his reading of the darker middle section is much slower and less dramatic than most pianists’. His use of rubato in Clair de lune may also be unusual, but his touch is incredibly graceful and nuanced. Even in the dramatic chords in “The Madonna of Frydek” and in the percussive Bartók, Drake still has poise and depth of color in his playing. The Britten is particularly evocative. For anyone looking for a collection of piano adagios that stands out from the rest, this is the one to choose.
Peter Grahame Woolf, Musical Pointers
One of the best British song accompanists ever, Julius Drake’s first solo CDis a personal record of his early years at the piano, reminding himself (any many of us who played the piano as children) of early favourites which many amateur pianists will have played.
His judgment and “touch”, with perfectly conceived rhythm, rubato and balance, will be a model for many aspiring pianists and give huge pleasure within their families.
His notes are spot on what is needed, and the whole concept is realised to perfection.