account
basket
Challenge Records Int. logo
Prometheus Schubert, Strauss & Wolf Lieder
Richard Strauss, Hugo Wolf, Franz Schubert

Franz-Josef Selig

Prometheus Schubert, Strauss & Wolf Lieder

Price: € 19.95
Format: CD
Label: CAvi
UPC: 4260085533022
Catnr: Avi 8553302
Release date: 29 August 2014
Buy
1 CD
✓ in stock
€ 19.95
Buy
 
Label
CAvi
UPC
4260085533022
Catalogue number
Avi 8553302
Release date
29 August 2014
Album
Artist(s)
Composer(s)
EN

About the album

This is the first Solo Album by the bass Franz-Josef Selig, who is of course one of the most significant bass voices since years in the opera section. Now he takes on the bass Lieder of three important Lieder specialists together with his accompanist Gerold Huber.

Franz-Josef Selig has made his personal reflection on the selection of Lieder on this CD: ....." a sombre collection of lieder such as this one does not have to be taken at face value as something merely sinister or depressing, but hopefully also as an invitation to face our own mortality with courage: an ongoing attempt to prepare for that which is intangible and unavoidable. How wonderful, then, if one day we could say to Nature, like the poet in Richard Strauss’s song Das Tal: “So quietly open your mouth, accept me, close it once more, and go on blooming, healthy and cheerful as always”. (Franz-Josef Selig)

Artist(s)

Gerold Huber

Gerold Huber, pianist of international standing and winner of two coveted 'Echo' prizes, was born in 1969 in Straubing, Bavaria. He won a grant to the Munich Hochschule für Musik, studying piano with Friedemann Berger and Lied interpreation with Helmut Deutsch, and was a participant in Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau's masterclass in Berlin. In 1998 he won the Prix International Pro Musicis in Paris. In 2001 he was one of the prizewinners at the highly specialized Johann Sebastian Bach International Piano Competition in Saarbrücken. An experienced and dedicated classical lied accompanist, Gerold Huber has made countless guest appearances not only at most of the worldwide famous concert halls but also at various significant festivals, notably the Schubertiades in Schwarzenberg (Austria) and Vilabertran (Spain),...
more
Gerold Huber, pianist of international standing and winner of two coveted "Echo" prizes, was born in 1969 in Straubing, Bavaria. He won a grant to the Munich Hochschule für Musik, studying piano with Friedemann Berger and Lied interpreation with Helmut Deutsch, and was a participant in Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau's masterclass in Berlin. In 1998 he won the Prix International Pro Musicis in Paris. In 2001 he was one of the prizewinners at the highly specialized Johann Sebastian Bach International Piano Competition in Saarbrücken.
An experienced and dedicated classical lied accompanist, Gerold Huber has made countless guest appearances not only at most of the worldwide famous concert halls but also at various significant festivals, notably the Schubertiades in Schwarzenberg (Austria) and Vilabertran (Spain), the Rheingau Musikfestival and the Schleswig- Holstein Festival, as well as featuring in festivals in Cheltenham (England) and Saintes (France). His extensive list of performance venues also includes major international concert halls such as the Cologne Philharmonic Hall, Frankfurt's Alte Oper, the Leipzig Gewandhaus, the Vienna Konzerthaus, the Konzertgebouw Amsterdam, the Wigmore Hall in London and the Frick Collection in New York. Gerold Huber's solo performances to date have largely showcased the works of Bach, Beethoven, Schubert and Brahms. His recordings of Schubert's Winterreise (2002) and Die schöne Müllerin (2004) were both awarded the hotly-contested Echo-Klassik prize. Amongst the soloists regularly accompanied by Gerold Huber are Christian Gerhaher, Ruth Ziesak, Franz-Josef Selig, Cornelia Kallisch, Diana Damrau, the Liedertafel ensemble and Susanne Brantl.

less

Franz-Josef Selig

During the course of a stage career that has spanned more than twenty years, Franz-Josef Selig has established himself on the international arena as one of the most well known performers of serious bass parts – particularly Gurnemanz, King Marke, Sarastro, Rocco, Osmin, Daland, Fiesco and Fasolt. Bass singer Franz-Josef Selig first studied church music at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik, Cologne before taking voice classes under Claudio Nicolai. He was a member of the Aalto Theatre ensemble in Essen from 1989 to 1995. Franz-Josef Selig has been a freelance singer since then and has given guest performances at all of the world’s great opera houses such as Wiener Staatsoper, Royal Opera Covent Garden, La Scala di Milano, Staatsoper Hamburg, Opéra de la Bastille, Théâtre du Châtelet...
more
During the course of a stage career that has spanned more than twenty years, Franz-Josef Selig has established himself on the international arena as one of the most well known performers of serious bass parts – particularly Gurnemanz, King Marke, Sarastro, Rocco, Osmin, Daland, Fiesco and Fasolt. Bass singer Franz-Josef Selig first studied church music at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik, Cologne before taking voice classes under Claudio Nicolai. He was a member of the Aalto Theatre ensemble in Essen from 1989 to 1995. Franz-Josef Selig has been a freelance singer since then and has given guest performances at all of the world’s great opera houses such as Wiener Staatsoper, Royal Opera Covent Garden, La Scala di Milano, Staatsoper Hamburg, Opéra de la Bastille, Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, the Metropolitan Opera New York, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Théâtre de la Monnaie Brussels, Deutsche Oper Berlin or Bavarian State Opera Munich. In the summer of 2012 Franz-Josef Selig made his debut at the Bayreuth Festival.
Despite his worldwide concert and opera engagements Franz-Josef Selig still finds time for recitals. A favourite project of the singer is the Liedertafel with Markus Schäfer, Christian Elsner and Michael Volle, as well as Gerold Huber as pianist. With the programm of his Lieder recital CD he will appear in many other concert cycles over the next years.
His affinity to earyl music can bee seen in cooperation with Nikolaus Harnoncourt and the Concentus Musicus Wien, with Philippe Herreweghe, René Jacobs or the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin. Numerous CD and DVD productions – from Bach’s St. Matthew Passion via Mozart’s Magic Flute (Royal Opera London/ Sir Colin Davis), Don Giovanni (Wiener Staatsoper/Riccardo Muti) and Le nozze di Figaro (Salzburger Festspiele/ Nikolaus Harnoncourt), Weber’s Abu Hassan and Busoni’s Turandot to the Deutsche Grammophon recording of Wagner’s Parsifal under Christian Thielemann – show Franz-Josef Selig’s broad artistic spectrum.

less

Composer(s)

Franz Schubert

Franz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer. Schubert already died before his 32nd birthday, but was extremely prolific during his lifetime. His output consists of over six hundred secular vocal works (mainly Lieder), seven complete symphonies, sacred music, operas, incidental music and a large body of chamber and piano music. Appreciation of his music while he was alive was limited to a relatively small circle of admirers in Vienna, but interest in his work increased significantly in the decades following his death. Felix Mendelssohn, Robert Schumann, Franz Liszt, Johannes Brahms and other 19th-century composers discovered and championed his works. Today, Schubert is ranked among the greatest composers of the late Classical and early Romantic eras and is one of the...
more
Franz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer. Schubert already died before his 32nd birthday, but was extremely prolific during his lifetime. His output consists of over six hundred secular vocal works (mainly Lieder), seven complete symphonies, sacred music, operas, incidental music and a large body of chamber and piano music. Appreciation of his music while he was alive was limited to a relatively small circle of admirers in Vienna, but interest in his work increased significantly in the decades following his death. Felix Mendelssohn, Robert Schumann, Franz Liszt, Johannes Brahms and other 19th-century composers discovered and championed his works. Today, Schubert is ranked among the greatest composers of the late Classical and early Romantic eras and is one of the most frequently performed composers of the early nineteenth century.
It was in the genre of the Lied that Schubert made his most indelible mark. Prior to Schubert's influence, Lieder tended toward a strophic, syllabic treatment of text, evoking the folksong qualities engendered by the stirrings of Romantic nationalism. Schubert expanded the potentialities of the genre like no other composer before.

less

Richard Strauss

Richard Georg Strauss was a leading German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras. He is known for his operas, which include Der Rosenkavalier, Elektra, Die Frau ohne Schatten and Salome; his Lieder, especially his  Four Last Songs; his tone poems, including Don Juan, Death and Transfiguration, and An Alpine Symphony; and other instrumental works such as Metamorphosen and his Oboe Concerto. Strauss was also a prominent conductor in Western Europe and the Americas, enjoying quasi-celebrity status as his compositions became standards of orchestral and operatic repertoire. Strauss, along with Gustav Mahler, represents the late flowering of German Romanticism after Richard Wagner, in which pioneering subtleties of orchestration are combined with an advanced harmonic style.
more
Richard Georg Strauss was a leading German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras. He is known for his operas, which include Der Rosenkavalier, Elektra, Die Frau ohne Schatten and Salome; his Lieder, especially his Four Last Songs; his tone poems, including Don Juan, Death and Transfiguration, and An Alpine Symphony; and other instrumental works such as Metamorphosen and his Oboe Concerto. Strauss was also a prominent conductor in Western Europe and the Americas, enjoying quasi-celebrity status as his compositions became standards of orchestral and operatic repertoire.
Strauss, along with Gustav Mahler, represents the late flowering of German Romanticism after Richard Wagner, in which pioneering subtleties of orchestration are combined with an advanced harmonic style.

less

Hugo Wolf

Together with Gustav Mahler, Hugo Wolf can be considered as one of the greatest composers of Late Romantic lieder. Both of them followed the tradition of Schubert and Schumann, but intensified the gerne with Wagner's techniques of text declamation and harmonic development. What makes Wolf's song cycles special, is the fact that often they are devoted to a single poet, like in his Mörike-Lieder (1889), Eichendorff-Lieder (1889) en Goethe-Lieder (1890). For each cycle, he spent a considerable time studying the text to create the best matching music. His accomodation of musical structure, harmonic subteties and pianistic texture are all inseperable from the lyrics. Partly due to his psychological sophistication his songs can be heard as miniature operas. Even though he did start writing...
more

Together with Gustav Mahler, Hugo Wolf can be considered as one of the greatest composers of Late Romantic lieder. Both of them followed the tradition of Schubert and Schumann, but intensified the gerne with Wagner's techniques of text declamation and harmonic development. What makes Wolf's song cycles special, is the fact that often they are devoted to a single poet, like in his Mörike-Lieder (1889), Eichendorff-Lieder (1889) en Goethe-Lieder (1890). For each cycle, he spent a considerable time studying the text to create the best matching music. His accomodation of musical structure, harmonic subteties and pianistic texture are all inseperable from the lyrics. Partly due to his psychological sophistication his songs can be heard as miniature operas.
Even though he did start writing on several full-fledged operas, it never became a true succes. Only his opera Der Corregidor (1896) was completed. Things went downhill from there. In 1897, Wolf had a nervous breakdown as a consequence of a syphilis infection he had since his teens. After a failed suicide attempt, he was admitted to a clinic in Vienna. The somber Michelangelo-Lieder (1898) would become his last completed composition. Wolf died in 1903, three weeks before his 43st birthday.


less

Press

Play album Play album

You might also like..

George Frideric Händel
Freedom - Oratorio Arias
La Sfera Armoniosa | Oscar Verhaar | Mike Fentross
Fratellanza
Paulus Schäfer - Joost Zoeteman Quartet
Bernhard Romberg
Good bye, great artist. Truly yours, Beethoven | 3 Grand Sonatas, Op. 5 for Harp and Cello
Simona Marchesi | Bartolomeo Dandolo Marchesi
Various
Feast of the Swan - Den Bosch Choirbook Vol. 4
Cappella Pratensis | Stratton Bull | Sollazzo Ensemble
Dedication II
Moisés P. Sánchez
Sunland
Olivier Le Goas
Max Richter
Recomposed, Vivaldi's Four Seasons
Daniel Rowland
Narcis
Jonas Timm
Gnar Gnar Rad | Jazz Thing Next Generation Vol. 102
Gnar Gnar Rad
Catharsis
Michiel Stekelenburg
Frédéric Chopin
The poor, sad angel (re-issue)
Nikolai Lugansky
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
The First Vienna Concertos | Piano Concertos Nos. 11-12-13
Ben Kim | Concertgebouw Chamber Orchestra