Ludwig Mittelhammer & Jonathan Ware - Schubert - Wolf - Medtner (2019) [Official Digital Download 24/96]

Three composers, two performers and centre stage a young, and sometimes sensitive protagonist. Baritone Ludwig Mittelhammer and pianist Jonathan Ware interpret songs by Franz Schubert, Hugo Wolf and Nikolai Medtner. This is the debut album of a young singer of whom great things are expected.

Ludwig Mittelhammer recounts how he felt a close affiliation with Franz Schubert at an early age, when he was a member of the famous Tölz Boys' Choir. Right from the outset the Munich-born singer was clear that Schubert's songs would one day be part of his debut album. "I remember frequently hearing 'Schöne Müllerin' at home, or simply some of Schubert's songs."

The starting point for his approach to a song is the poet's original text, as it would have been for the composer. "I start by trying, on a very fundamental and simple level, to work out what the lyrics are about. What is happening? Who is speaking? What sort of emotions does the poem overall invoke?" Especially when it comes to Hugo Wolf, who both Mittelhammer and Ware say subordinates the music to the lyrics like no other, this would seem like a sensible way of working.

His musical partner at the piano is the Texan Jonathan Ware. Together the two have won such prizes as the 2014 song competition staged by the International Hugo Wolf Academy based in Stuttgart. "It's like a game of ping-pong," Ware explains, when the two collaborate. A spontaneous game of throwing ideas back and forth. It is thanks to Jonathan Ware that Ludwig Mittelhammer became aware of the third composer on the album: Nikolai Medtner. "We were looking for pieces for a Goethe song recital, and we needed something that would lighten up the Schubert-Wolf programme that we had worked out. He suggested Medtnerʼs songs to me. They are very virtuoso in the piano part and not always easy for me to sing, because they hit the very high and the very low notes – but they are musically so very interesting and really beautiful."

Tracklist:
1 Im Frühling, D. 882 04:24
2 Der Knabe, D. 692 02:01
3 Der Schmetterling, D 633 01:36
4 Der Musensohn, D. 764 02:05
5 Alinde, D. 904 04:00
6 Der Wanderer an den Mond, D. 870 02:20
7 An den Mond, D. 193 03:27
8 An den Mond in einer Herbstnacht, D. 614 08:18
9 Mörike-Lieder: No. 17, Der Gärtner 01:28
10 Mörike-Lieder: No. 2, Der Knabe und das Immlein 03:11
11 Mörike-Lieder: No. 5, Der Tambour 02:37
12 Mörike-Lieder: No. 31, Wo find' ich Trost 04:51
13 Mörike-Lieder: No. 28, Gebet 02:32
14 Mörike-Lieder: No. 46, Gesang Weylas 01:45
15 Mörike-Lieder: No. 48, Storchenbotschaft 03:43
16 9 Lieder nach Goethe, Op. 6: No. 5, Liebliches Kind 02:04
17 Zwölf Lieder nach Goethe, Op. 15: No. 9, Nähe des Geliebten 02:20
18 Zwölf Lieder nach Goethe, Op. 15: No. 1, Wandrers Nachtlied I 02:15
19 9 Lieder nach Goethe, Op. 6: No. 1, Wandrers Nachtlied II 02:14
20 Zwölf Lieder nach Goethe, Op. 15: No. 7, Meeresstille 03:24
21 Zwölf Lieder nach Goethe, Op. 15: No. 8, Glückliche Fahrt 01:11

Personnel:
Ludwig Mittelhammer, baritone
Jonathan Ware, piano