Mythos - Schubert | Loewe
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Konstantin Krimmel (baritone), Ammiel Bushakevitz (piano)
Alpha 1088 • 68' •
Recording: Jan. & Feb. 2024, Studio 2, Bayerischer Rundfunk, München
In the classical-romantic art song repertoire, Carl Loewe (1796-1869) is a less well-known name than Schubert, Schumann, Brahms or even Wolf. It took a long time before the tide turned for Loewe, in the sixties, when his songs and ballads were gradually brought to the fore by the renowned German baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau with several pianists (including Gerald Moore, Jörg Demus, Hartmut Höll).
Whether justified or not, did Loewe remain in the shadow of Schubert for so long? I fear: justifiably so, for Goethe's Erlkönig alone already shows that Schubert far surpassed Loewe in dramaturgy. And to think that Loewe's Erlkönig was composed nine years after Schubert's. Perhaps this also explains why on this new album, with Schubert and Loewe as it were shoulder to shoulder, only Schubert's Erlkönig is represented, for the dramatic-expressive difference to Loewe's disadvantage would perhaps otherwise have been all too apparent.
The majority of Loewe's oeuvre, including over six hundred songs and some twenty elaborate ballads, is unlike Schubert's in genre and, despite the efforts of great singers of the past such as Fischer-Dieskau and Robert Holl, has remained under the radar.
The distinction between the (art) song and the ballad is not always entirely clear. In the Middle Ages it concerned a narrative song or poem in its most elementary form, the term derived from 'dance song', consisting of merely short stanzas. Its course is quite simple, the themes revolve largely around love, sorrow, abandonment, murder and manslaughter, revenge. Human emotions that sought and found an outlet. In the Romantic era, the model continued unabated, although expressively refined. The aforementioned Erlkönig by Goethe from 1782 is a ballad in its clearest and dialogic form (which rightly inspired many a composer). In art song, it is regarded as singing with a narrative character, but this can also be said of the 'ordinary' (art) song. Though dialogue is more to be expected in the ballad than in the song. There are also purely instrumental ballads, in abundance even. There is no singing, but there is narration (or at least the suggestion of it), such as Chopin's ballades. In pop and jazz music, the 'ballad' is usually intimate, melancholic or dreamy, played or sung in slow tempo, but this genre has nothing to do with the ballad in classical form.
Whoever follows Loewe's development as a composer step by step does see a gradually growing mastery over the years and his output. Moreover, he cleverly played to public taste, helped considerably by the then popular Scottish and Norwegian ballads which the poet (and pastor) Johann Gottfried Herder translated by the bucketful. This led to four of Loewe's best-known ballads: Herr Oluf, Edward, Prinz Eugen and Heinrich der Vogler. They are not all on this album.
Schubert may have been Loewe's superior, but it is certainly not the case that this disqualifies his oeuvre. Great singers, including of old, have rightly and convincingly devoted themselves to it and certainly not without success. Not so long ago it was the baritones Henk Neven and Florian Boesch who made efforts on behalf of a number of Loewe's ballads.
So now the song duo Konstantin Krimmel and Ammiel Bushakevitz, whose performance can be described as both intelligent and deeply felt. There is also a certain freshness to it, and when it needs to be epic, it is, as in Loewe's Archibald Douglas. Or downright heartbreaking as in Schubert's Erlkönig. The spontaneous signature of these interpretations reveals the technical mastery of both baritone and pianist (the term 'accompanist' would seriously fall short of Bushakevitz's playing).
What distinguishes Konstantin Krimmel's baritone from so many other baritones is its distinctly light character, a quality that in the high register reaches towards that of the tenor (quite different from, for example, Matthias Goerne or Robert Holl, which makes a song recital like this all the more fascinating), while in the lower registers there is precisely a warm, glowing solidity. The transition from high or low to the middle register proceeds flawlessly. The ample dynamic range, between fortissimo and pianissimo, makes everything possible. Diction, accentuation and phrasing are exemplary, the narrative character of these interpretations determines the atmosphere, with the imagination continually holding sway.
In short, a magnificent achievement, which is moreover impeccably produced.