Composers: Johannes Brahms, Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann, Richard Strauss
Performers: Nathan berg (bass-baritone), Julius Drake (piano)
Label: Atma
ASIN: B001DELXDA
ATMA presents the debut solo recording of Saskatchewan-born bass-baritone, Nathan Berg singing lieder by Schubert, Schumann, Strauss and Brahms. He is accompanied by British pianist Julius Drake.
Nathan Berg has selected a programme covering more than a century of Romantic, German lieder, including some of the best-loved songs of the genre: Der Tod und das Mädchen (Death and the Maiden), Erlkönig, and Meine Rose. His long recital partnership with Julius Drake started when Berg was a student in London in the early 90s, and the two continue to perform together frequently.
Track listing:
Schubert, Franz
1 Im Abendrot D.799 Schubert, Franz
2 Der Strom D. 560
3 Das Abendrot D. 627
4 Der Jüngling an der Quelle D. 300
5 Der Tod und das Mädchen D. 531
6 Erlkönig D. 338
Sechs Gedichte Op. 90 Schumann, Robert
7 Lied eines Schmiedes
8 Meine Rose
9 Kommen und Scheiden
10 Die Sennin
11 Einsamkeit
12 Der schwere Abend
13 Requiem Op. 90b
Vier ernste Gesänge Op. 121 Brahms, Johannes
14 Denn es gehet dem Menschen wie dem Vieh;
15 Denn es gehet dem Menschen wie dem Vieh;
16 O Tod, wie bitter bist du
17 Wenn ich mit Menschen und mit Engelszungen redete
Strauss, Richard
18 Traum durch die Dämmerung Op. 29 No. 1
19 Epheu Op. 22 No. 3
21 Morgen! Op. 27 No. 4
What the critics say
Rick Phillips, Opera Canada, 1 February 2009
This is the debut solo recording of Saskatchewan-born bass-baritone Nathan Berg. It’s a lovely, balanced set of lieder by four composers dealing with the twilight of life or love. Berg produces a deep, rich bass sound, and yet, up higher, it’s a gorgeous light baritone. He’s very intelligent and expressive, easily and convincingly changing moods and characters in Schubert’s “Der Tod und das Madehen” and the famous “Der Erlkonig”. The latter is nicely characterized between the narrator, boy, father and Erlking, but Berg maintains the intimate lieder quality without making it operatic, as is somtimes the case with younger singers. Diction, phrasing, tuning and ornaments are all top-notch, and he works with a range of colours and shades. The selections by Schubert have a suitable early-Romantic restlesness, while the later songs by Brahms and Strauss are given more depth-of sound and character. Berg’s piano partner here, the Englishman Julius Drake, is probably better known for his work with another Canadian baritone, Gerald Finley. But apparently, Berg and Drake have worked together for years, and with results like this, we can only hope it continues.
Drew Minter, Operanews.com, Feb 2009
This CD would be worth purchasing only to hear Nathan Berg and Julius Drake’s perfomance of “Der Erlkönig.” Berg is a superb vocal character actor (an ability he proves again later in the recital with “Der Tod und das Mädchen” and Strauss’s “Ach weh mir unglückhafter Mann”). He accesses an urgent baritone to portray the child, an imperious bass for the father and – best of all – the flat, nasalized Viennese accent of a Staatsoper character tenor, with just a hint of lisp and laugh in the voice, to create a creepy elf king. Just as amazing is the articulated pianism of Drake, in a song so difficult that many pianists, including famous ones, refuse to play it.
The booklet notes that Berg and Drake have been making music since their college days at the Guildhall School. It shows. The recital is full of detailed surprises, in a recital of mostly highly traversed Lieder repertoire. My favorite was Drake’s tag at the end of the maiden’s speech in “Der Tod und das Mädchen,” a phrase we’ve all heard dozens of times. It’s only four chords, but Drake manages to make it foreshadow Death’s appearance, rather than serve only as a parenthesis for the maiden.
Berg’s assets are many. His technique is impeccable, and a byproduct of that is beautiful diction. He can differentiate the sound at will from brilliant to soft and at both extremes of his wide range, as he does in Schubert’s “Das Abendrot,” where he traverses two octaves time and again in the smoothest manner. His is a detailed approach, which one wants in a recitalist. He never fails to deliver a pallid tone on words such as “hopeless” or “pale.” His articulation is utterly precise in even the smallest of turns or division notes. An entire world seems to live in his “o” vowel (making all utterances of “Tod” especially beguiling, as in the third of the Brahms “Four Serious Songs”).
Sometimes I wished for more drawn legato and line and less artful word color and stress. In Schumann’s “Meine Rose” Drake plays a gorgeous, violin-like legato melody in the top voice, but Berg lifts frequently in his lines, rather than offering a sustained cello in response. It’s a choice, and one that a lesser singer wouldn’t be able to make. Berg can sing deliciously long, spinning lines when he wants, with a seemingly limitless supply of breath. He uses this to advantage in the Brahms and Strauss songs. “Morgen” is not a song one expects to be terribly moved by when it is sung by a bass-baritone – the diaphanous quality of a silvery soprano can only be approximated in this tessitura. But Berg sings the song with disarming poise and honesty. Both qualities are hallmarks of this entire recital.