Lieder (edit title/settings)

• Rated 3 stars

“Deutsche Grammophone has transferred the classic recordings by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau of the Schubert Lieder for male voice to 21 CDs. Instead of printing a separate "liner" for each CD, they have included this booklet (actually in two parts, continuously paged) which contains the text of each lied, together with English and French translations. This was especially useful to me listening to the collection as I can read German far better than I can understand it spoken (let alone sung.)

Given the practical purpose, it is perhaps unfair to review this as a book separate from the recordings with which it comes; but it is useful in its own right. Apart from Schubert's music, this is an anthology of many of the German poets from the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. Schubert's selection of course was not entirely based on literary merit, but this does include much poetry by Goethe, Schiller, Hölty, and other major poets which can stand on their own, as well as poems by his friends such as Joseph Kenner and J. Mayrhofer which are best forgotten as texts, however good the musical settings may be. (Kenner has a long sentimental ballad which brings in a werewolf at the end.)

The book would not be useful to anyone who does not read German, as the English translations are very bad (they change the words arbitrarily, even though the translation is not in verse so there is no reason for it -- for example, "the sacrifice of Abel" becomes "many hecatombs", "Son of Heaven" becomes "Daughter of Heaven", "she" is changed to "he" and vice versa in many places) and the French translations are frequently abridged. ”

James F wrote this review Friday, February 24, 2012.