Collection: The Art of Maria Müller
Published:
COMPOSERS: Brahms,Puccini,Wagner,Weber
LABELS: Preiser
WORKS: Operatic excerpts & songs
PERFORMER: Maria Müller (soprano), Franz Völker, Tino Pattiera (tenor), Michael Raucheisen (piano)
CATALOGUE NO: 89235 AAD mono
If Lemnitz is a balm to the ear as Agathe, Elsa, Elisabeth, Arabella and Desdemona, the singing of her Berlin colleague MARIA MÜLLER (1898-1958) pierces the heart.
Crystalline diction and imaginative but natural use of music to reinforce the sound and meaning of words transform Müller’s every utterance into heightened speech, which in turn enhances the range and immediacy of expression at her disposal.
Her ‘Wie nahte mir der Schlummer’ from Der Freischütz is scintillatingly alive next to Lemnitz’s one-dimensionally dreamy account, and Müller’s Wagner is a marvel: no one else in my experience demonstrates so masterly an integration of musical accents into tastefully vivacious declamation.
Preiser’s rather scattered tribute augments selections from Müller’s disappointingly few commercial recordings with radio and live performances, altogether spanning the years 1927-44.