Mozart's Lieder: Leblanc and Seefried

Mozart: Lieder; Assorted lieder by Flies, Brahms, Schubert, and Wolf
Irmgard Seefried with Gerald Moore; Hermann von Nordberg; Wilhelm Schmidt; London Mozart Players/Harry Blech
Testament SBT 1026 | Mono ADD

Mozart: Lieder
Suzie Leblanc/Yannick Nezet-Seguin
ATMA Classique 22327 | Stereo DDD (SACD)

Mozart's lieder after all these years still remains somewhat underrated. While never reaching the heights of inspiration and depth of expression that Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, Wolf, Mahler, et al were able to bring to the genre, they still are exquisite, charming gems that bring much pleasure to the listener. Here are two recitals, one better than the other, that show what a fine lieder composer Mozart was.

Suzie Leblanc starts us off with her ATMA Mozart disc, accompanied by up and coming conductor Yannick Nezet-Seguin, moonlighting here on the fortepiano. Leblanc sings with warmth and grace, albeit with a somewhat hooty sound that afflicts most period performance singers. There's also a tendency to unduly press the tempi as is the wont of period performance types. Nezet-Seguin plays very well, though the fortepiano sounds unintentionally comical, like a honky-tonk piano. The ATMA sonics have plenty of bloom and as far as modern Mozart lieder recordings go, this is excellent.

For those who can bear monaural sound, we have the incomparable Irmgard Seefried backed by "the unashamed accompanist" himself, Gerald Moore. As fine as Leblanc/Nezet-Seguin are, Seefried/Moore inhabit a completely different world of expression and color. The songs blossom and burst to life with charm. Has there ever been a more lovely rendition of Sehnsucht nach dem Frühling? A more witty and flirtatious An Chloë? Seefried paints a wide spectrum of colors with such natural ease. Moore, as ever, is superb here. This recital was released piecemeal on 78's, but quickly deleted when EMI converted to LP where it was quickly replaced by a recital of Mozart songs sung by Elisabeth Schwarzkopf. As much as I love Schwarzkopf, she is no match for Seefried here, sounding too calculating where Seefried sounds utterly spontaneous and fresh. Included here also are recordings of Seefried singing lieder by other composers. A trio of charming Wolf songs closes out the disc with Seefried sounding just adorably girly.

You really can't go wrong with either disc, though the Seefried recital really is something special; a real treasure.