Schubert Lieder – Per Vollestad

A talent to watch

“Who is this guy and where is he hiding?” Such was the reaction in the American record magazine Fanfare when reviewing Per Vollestad´s first CD release, with Lieder by Schumann and Wolf, on Simax Classics (PSC1051), while the English Gramophone called him “a talent to watch.” It is therefore with great pleasure that Simax now presents Per Vollestad´s second CD release. Together with the experienced pianist Sigmund Hjelset, the duo this time embark on twenty of Schubert´s fantastic Lieder.

“Had Schubert written for nothing but the human voice and its accompanying pianoforte, both musicians and music historians would still regard him as a major composer.” So wrote Professor Arthur Hutchings in his biography of Franz Schubert. The German composer should certainly be regarded as the father of what, in English, is sometimes called “Art Song” but is universally known in its German form as the Lied. While Schubert was not the first composer to produce this kind of Lieder, he was the first important composer to do so on a substantial scale. However, it is quite likely that Schubert thought only of the pleasure his songs could give to his friends and did not expect them to last, but, all the while there are singers to sing them, these masterpieces of the art of the Lied will surely charm and delight music lovers in the years that are to come.