Samuel Hasselhorn - Dichterliebe (2019)

Heinrich Heine's cycle of love of the poet reflects on the soul-state of a lover, brings together high-jubilant and deeply sad emotions with strong metaphors from nature - that is what the timeless poetry of Romanticism wants, and above all it inspired the composer Robert Schumann to one of his most important song cycles. Heines Lyrik already enjoyed an international charisma during his lifetime. And it reaches into the present when it animates the compositional pen of composers like Stefan Heucke.

The baritone Samuel Hasselhorn therefore did not want to leave it at another Schumann reissue. This CD is much more about juxtaposing perspectives and the variety of possibilities when the entire Heine cycle is run twice: the first half of the program dares to take a "total view" of old and new interpretations, then the 16th Countries in the well-known Schumann version.

Samuel Hasselhorn and Boris Kusnezow are proving themselves sovereign enough for such an endeavor: Hasselhorn's slender yet powerful vocals, which are also incorrigibly confident at high altitudes, are supported by the finely-nervously compassionate, extremely responsive and responsive piano playing by Boris Kuznetsov. Such a sensitive mutual penetration helps to revise every role conception of "soloist" and "companion".

Thus, the many emotions can directly affect the listener - such as a romantic May idyll from the pen of Robert Franz. Modest Mussorgsky From my tears sprout is immersed in new colors, while Edvard Grieg clarifies in his contribution to this cycle once again, that he does not just want to be perceived as a creator of Nordic myths, but is in the middle of the musical life of Europe. The epoch of romanticism with its sentimental moods may often be foreign to us today - Hasselhorn's vocal performance creates a good balance at every moment between respect for the sometimes pathetic-looking coloring of the romantic and a timelessly clear statement. Both need courage and empathy, which is sovereign here.

Heine's soul psychology of devotion, longing, jealousy and also the complexity of relationships have lost none of their topicality. This is emphatically demonstrated by this duo, at the latest when the Bochum composer Stefan Heucke responds with a staggering direct, saturated by Chromatik and Tritonussprüngen tonal language. When Hasselhorn and Kuznetsov, singing and playing in Heucke's pieces, set up a disturbing, sometimes disturbing world of sound, everything definitely does not seem like falling out of time. After such strong change baths and emotional outbursts at Heucke, the now following Schumann cycle seems almost too delicate, sometimes even innocent. A much more coherent dramaturgy would do well if this "original" sounded in the first part of the CD.