Schubert Die schöne Müllerin
Padmore; Lewis
Harmonia Mundi HMU907519

Release date July 2010

The partnership of Mark Padmore and Paul Lewis resulted in a recording of Die Winterreise that was one of 2009’s best-selling discs: ‘an arrestingly frayed performance…the interpretation bold and complex’, said the Independent on Sunday. Padmore has come relatively late to Schubert’s great song-cycles. Ian Bostridge recorded Die schöne Müllerin at the age of 30, whereas Padmore was nearly ten years older when he first performed it in 2002; his first Winterreise followed two years later. He finds working with different pianists acts as a stimulus to interpretation. On his website he writes, ‘I have started exciting collaborations with Imogen Cooper, Till Fellner and Paul Lewis who all encourage me to think again about what I am doing and to listen and understand better the amazing music that makes up this extraordinary repertoire’. This new recording bears all the freshness of a new look at the work. At over 68 minutes it is considerably longer than virtually all its rivals; the recent excellent recording by Jonas Kaufmann comes in at just over 63’, while Bostridge and Fischer-Dieskau are nearer 61’. Padmore certainly does take his time over some of the slower songs: the fourth song, Danksagung an den Bach, is sung against the mesmerically slow turning of the mill-wheel in the piano part, while in the twelfth, Pause, the slow tempo serves to emphasise the fragility and yearning of the miller’s love. Only in the eighth song, Morgengruss, is there any sense of dragging, where the last line of each verse is slowed considerably. Of course, Padmore’s voice is eminently suited to spinning long, beautiful legato phrases, and the sense of line he generates throughout this performance is matched by no-one, not even Bostridge. The story is delivered very simply and unaffectedly; and yet the variety of tone at his disposal seems endless. Trockne Blumen is a good example of this, the gentle treatment conveying fondness and yet a wrung-out sensation through use of a partially bleached tone at the end of each verse, and a desperate urgency at the end of the song. This all adds up to a very good recording; what makes it outstanding is the contribution of Paul Lewis. This is a partnership of equals; Lewis certainly supports Padmore, but adds to the interpretation with so many small touches of his own. His playing in the very first song is distinctive, depicting the grinding millstone in a manner already touched with foreboding. Throughout the disc I was made aware of connections with many of Schubert’s piano works. Gavin Plumley’s succinct booklet essay refers to this cycle illustrating ‘the perfect synthesis of Schubert’s mature style: a hopeful front beset by a more tragic reality’. This interpretation may be beautiful, but by the end the listener is left in no doubt that Die schöne Müllerin is a work of false hope.

Reviewed by Anne McAlister