Doppelgänger

CD: Robert Schumann Dichterliebe Op 48 and Kerner-Lieder op35
Bonus: 6 Songs from Dichterliebe Op 48 recorded in 1994 with Jan Philip Schulze piano.

DVD: Doppelgänger Dramatised staging of Schubert's Schwanengesang D957
A co-production of Bernhard Fleischer Moving Images GmbH & JAK GmbH
Director: Claus Guth.

Jonas Kaufmann Tenor Helmut Deutsch Piano

Sony Classical 194397 813821

This substantial release from Sony Classical offers a compelling survey of the German Lied tradition, centring on Jonas Kaufmann's interpretations of Schumann and Schubert alongside his longstanding collaborator, pianist Helmut Deutsch. The package comprises a CD of Schumann's Dichterliebe and Kerner-Lieder, recorded during the 2020 lockdown, supplemented by six fascinating archival tracks from Dichterliebe dating from 1994 with pianist Jan Philip Schulze—a rare glimpse of Kaufmann in his student years. The accompanying DVD documents Claus Guth's 2023 staging of Schubert's Schwanengesang at New York's Park Avenue Armory, a production that transforms this loosely assembled collection into something approaching genuine theatrical coherence.

Guth's vision reimagines Schwanengesang through the prism of the First World War, setting the performance within the cavernous Drill Hall. Sixty-three hospital beds populate the stage in stark rows, with dancers embodying nurses and wounded soldiers. The staging's austerity—relieved only by occasional touches of red—proves remarkably effective in capturing the cycles of hope and desolation that permeate Schubert's final songs. The piano positioned among the beds creates an unsettling intimacy, while the dancers' silent choreography intelligently evokes the shifting seasons and emotional landscapes of the texts.

Particularly striking is Helmut Deutsch's solo performance of the Andante sostenuto from Schubert's B-flat major Piano Sonata, D 960. This interlude provides a moment of profound tranquillity, the audience and dancers frozen in concentrated attention. The production's final song, Der Doppelgänger, from which the album takes its title, emerges as hauntingly compelling, the accumulated loneliness and dislocation finding devastating expression.

On the CD, Kaufmann and Deutsch bring considerable insight to both Schumann cycles. Their phrasing demonstrates genuine musical partnership, with Deutsch's accompaniments never merely supportive but actively conversational. Kaufmann's vocal resources remain impressive, his tonal warmth well-suited to Schumann's emotional directness. The Kerner-Lieder receive particularly persuasive advocacy; whilst Justinus Kerner's poetry may lack Heine's brilliance, Schumann's settings—especially the closing pair, 'Wer machte dich so krank' and 'Alte Laute'—achieve genuine poignancy.

The 1994 recordings, while naturally more raw, offer intriguing evidence of an artist already in command of considerable expressive resources. The accompanying booklet is handsomely produced, featuring interviews with both performers and complete texts. This album is a thoughtfully conceived release that rewards attention on multiple levels.