"LOEWE: SONGS AND BALLADS, VOL. 14".(Review)

Kurt Moll

[] "LOEWE: SONGS AND BALLADS, VOL. 14" With Garben, piano. Texts and translations. CPO 999412

Carl Loewe (1796-1869), a master of the ballad, knew the art of telling a story in music. He wrote five operas, of which only one -- Die Drei Wunsche (1834) -- was produced in his lifetime. He also worked extensively in oratorio, but his true metier proved to be the narrative song. Using folklike melodies and conventional harmonies, he would move the tale along with active rhythmic patterns, saving his originality for a sudden turning point or O. Henry ending. In "Der Wirtin Tochterlein," for example, a cheerful sea chantey suddenly becomes serious, and tension seizes the listener unawares, at the moment when the Innkeeper's Daughter of the title is seen to be lying dead on her bier. In "Die Glocken zu Speyer," a repeated low note on the piano depicts the tolling of a solemn bell, while a similar note several octaves higher serves for a smaller, more modest bell -- literally a striking distinction, scored by irreducibly simple means. Loewe was a dramatic sharpshooter, and his on-target directness impressed Wagner, with notable results in Senta's ballad and the Dutchman's monologue.

Not all Loewe's vocal solos are ballads. Some are descriptive songs, telling a story only in the sense of creating mood or ...