Daily album review 20: Jan Vogler tries singing with his cello in all-Schumann album

Cellist Jan Vogler and pianist Hélène Grimaud are both all-in performers whose deep commitment rings through every note in an engaging new all-Robert Schumann album from Sony Classical.

The centrepiece of the album is Schumann’s song cycle Dichterliebe (A Poet’s Loves), usually sung by a man, but in this case played straight from the vocal score by Vogler, with occasional jumps up or down an octave to suit the nature of his instrument.

People like to say how the cello is the closest any instrument gets to the human voice. I’ve never been completely convinced of that, but Vogler does get a remarkable range of expression from his bow that is at times bolder than what a singer might permit himself to do. Ignoring the words and just listening to the 16 Lieder melodies is a treat — an experience that improves as we delve deeper and deeper into the cycle.

As is the case with all art songs from Schubert’s time on, the pianist and singer (in this case cellist) work as partners to balance their contributions into a unified whole. Grimaud and Vogler succeed beautifully, as they do in the three extravagantly expressive Op. 73 Fantasiestücke which open the album.

Grimaud is a forceful performer who had adapted herself beautifully to Vogler’s lyrical style. Her playing has force but also a silken delicacy when needed.

A special treat on this album is Andante und Variationen, Op. 46, almost never performed because of its extra demands. It is redolent with snippets from the song cycle Frauenliebe und Leben (A Woman’s Love and Life) and augmented by French horn (well modulated by Johannes Dengler) an extra cello (Christian Poltéra) and a second piano (Juho Pohjonen).

This is a great listen from beginning to end.

The American Sony website is awful and the CD booklet is not that informative. For details and audio samples, I suggest visiting Sony’s German site, here.

John Terauds