Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Songs (2) for voice & piano, Op. 1: No. 1, "Thanks"
2. Songs (2) for voice & piano, Op. 1: No. 2, "Farewell"
3. Songs (4) for voice & piano, Op. 2: No. 1, "Expectation"
4. Songs (4) for voice & piano, Op. 2: No. 2, "Give me thy golden comb"
5. Songs (4) for voice & piano, Op. 2: No. 3, "Exaltation"
6. Songs (4) for voice & piano, Op. 2: No. 4, "The forest sun"
7. The Book of the Hanging Gardens, cycle of songs (15) for voice & piano, Op. 15: No. 1, "Unterm Schutz von dichten blattergunden"
8. The Book of the Hanging Gardens, cycle of songs (15) for voice & piano, Op. 15: No. 2, "Hain in diesen Paradiesen"
9. The Book of the Hanging Gardens, cycle of songs (15) for voice & piano, Op. 15: No. 3, "Als Neuling trat ich ein in dein Gehege"
10. The Book of the Hanging Gardens, cycle of songs (15) for voice & piano, Op. 15: No. 4, "Da meine Lippen reglos sind und brennen"
11. The Book of the Hanging Gardens, cycle of songs (15) for voice & piano, Op. 15: No. 5, "Saget mir, auf welchem Pfade"
12. The Book of the Hanging Gardens, cycle of songs (15) for voice & piano, Op. 15: No. 6, "Jedem Werke bin ich furder tot"
13. The Book of the Hanging Gardens, cycle of songs (15) for voice & piano, Op. 15: No. 7, "Angst und Hoffen wechselnd mich beklemmen"
14. The Book of the Hanging Gardens, cycle of songs (15) for voice & piano, Op. 15: No. 8, "Wenn ich heut nicht deinen Leib beruhre"
15. The Book of the Hanging Gardens, cycle of songs (15) for voice & piano, Op. 15: No. 9, "Streng ist uns das Gluck und Sprode"
16. The Book of the Hanging Gardens, cycle of songs (15) for voice & piano, Op. 15: No. 10, "Das schone Beet betracht ich mir im Harren"
17. The Book of the Hanging Gardens, cycle of songs (15) for voice & piano, Op. 15: No. 11, "Als wir hinter dem beblumten Tore"
18. The Book of the Hanging Gardens, cycle of songs (15) for voice & piano, Op. 15: No. 12, "Wenn sich bei heiliger Ruh in tiefen Matten"
19. The Book of the Hanging Gardens, cycle of songs (15) for voice & piano, Op. 15: No. 13, "Du lehnest wider eine Silberweide"
20. The Book of the Hanging Gardens, cycle of songs (15) for voice & piano, Op. 15: No. 14, "Sprich nicht immer von dem Laub"
21. The Book of the Hanging Gardens, cycle of songs (15) for voice & piano, Op. 15: No. 15, "Wir bevolkerten die abend-dustern Lauben"

Disc 2:

1. Songs (6) for mezzo-soprano or baritone & piano, Op. 3: No. 1, "How Georg von Frundersberg sang about himself" (from Des Knaben Wunde
2. Songs (6) for mezzo-soprano or baritone & piano, Op. 3: No. 2, "The excited ones"
3. Songs (6) for mezzo-soprano or baritone & piano, Op. 3: No. 3, "Warning"
4. Songs (6) for mezzo-soprano or baritone & piano, Op. 3: No. 4, "Wedding Song"
5. Songs (6) for mezzo-soprano or baritone & piano, Op. 3: No. 5, "The experienced heart"
6. Songs (6) for mezzo-soprano or baritone & piano, Op. 3: No. 6, "Free and fair"
7. Ballads (2) for voice & piano, Op. 12: No. 1, "Jane Grey"
8. Ballads (2) for voice & piano, Op. 12: No. 2, "The lost battalion"
9. Songs (3) for alto or bass & piano, Op. 48: No. 1, "Weary of Summer"
10. Songs (3) for alto or bass & piano, Op. 48: No. 2, "Dead'
11. Songs (3) for alto or bass & piano, Op. 48: No. 3, "Maiden's Song"
12. Songs (2) for voice & piano, Op. 14: No. 1, "I dare not thank thee"
13. Songs (2) for voice & piano, Op. 14: No. 2, "In diesen Wintertagen" (In these winter days)
14. Gedenken ('Es steht sein Bild noch immer da'), song for voice & piano
15. Am Strande, song for voice & piano
16. Songs (8) for voice & piano, Op. 6: No. 1, "Dream life"
17. Songs (8) for voice & piano, Op. 6: No. 2, "Everything"
18. Songs (8) for voice & piano, Op. 6: No. 3, "Maiden's song"
19. Songs (8) for voice & piano, Op. 6: No. 4, "Forsaken"
20. Songs (8) for voice & piano, Op. 6: No. 5, "Ghassel"
21. Songs (8) for voice & piano, Op. 6: No. 6, "By the wayside"
22. Songs (8) for voice & piano, Op. 6: No. 7, "Temptation"
23. Songs (8) for voice & piano, Op. 6: No. 8, "The Wanderer"

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #274519 in Music
• Released on: 1995-06-27
• Number of discs: 2
• Dimensions: .45 pounds

Amazon.com
Schoenberg was one of Glenn Gould's favorite composers, and this selection of songs provides a fascinating rendering of the notorious Viennese modernist. The Book of the Hanging Garden is eerie and expressionist, but other earlier works are Straussian: it's always illuminating to be reminded of Schoenberg's debt to 19th-century Romanticism. And anything marked by Gould's Midas touch, of course, belongs near the CD player. --Joshua Cody

Customer Reviews

If You Admire Schoenberg or Gould, You Should Get This Disc.
Yes, if you admire Schoenberg or Gould you really should add this disc to your collection.

Of course it features Schoenberg's early Opp. 1 & 2, and his pantonal song-cycle "The Book of the Hanging Gardens, Op. 15," settings of Stefan George's exquisite lyrics.

The Op. 1 songs are wonderfully Brahmsian yet wholly original Schoenberg. The Op. 2 songs are lighter and shorter. Both sets are almost contemporaneous with "Transfigured Night, Op. 4," with which almost everyone is familiar.

The George songs are contemporaneous with Schoenberg's String Quartet No. 2 in f#, Op. 10.

Gould wanted partners who would cooperate with his vision for the realization of the piece. This is why he never got along with Elizabeth Schwartzkoph. The vocalists featured here were hand picked by Gould for their malleability, hence the piano takes the lead in these performances.

Gould had a special love of Schoenberg, and since Schoenberg's oeuvre for piano is rather small, it is worthwhile to get these recordings for the piano work alone. If you want good vocal realizations, I recommend the recordings Fischer-Dieskau made on EMI--if you can find them.

Schoenberg's songs have been unjustly underrated, but to a lover of lieder, chansons, and art-songs, they are imperative.

Very Nice Modern Lieder. Buy It.
'Lieder' by Arnold Schoenberg is packaged in such a way that one would think the composer is Glenn Gould, and not the Viennese master of 12 tone theory.

This reminds me of how much of a Wunderkind Gould was back in the 1960s. It seems he was to classical music performing and recording what Emeril Lagasse is to culinary endeavors.

But, I do not say this to warn you off this recording. On the contrary, this is an excellent collection of pieces, which have few hints of 'impressionistic' or ultramodern stylings. In fact, when the first CD starts out, I find the songs remarkably similar in feel to some of George Gershwin's songs in 'Porgy and Bess'. This impression doesn't last, but the sense that Schoenberg has brought something fresh to the Lieder persists throughout the work. After listening to a big helping of Wolf's lieder, I find Schoenberg a pleasant return to the lyricism of Shubert, with just a touch of modern flavoring.

Very worthwhile for Lieder fans.