DIE SCHÖNE MÜLLERIN | TEXTURA REVIEW

Michael Kelly & David Leisner: Franz Schubert: Die schöne Müllerin

January 2023

Enhancing the considerable appeal Franz Schubert's Die schöne Müllerin (The Fair Maid of the Mill) already possesses in its its traditional voice-and-piano presentation, baritone Michael Kelly and guitarist David Leisner strikingly recast it as a work for, naturally, voice and guitar. Produced by Judith Sherman and recorded at Dreamland Recording Studios in Hurley, New York in October 2020, the 1823 setting, based on twenty poems by Wilhelm Müller, is the first of Schubert's two great song cycles, the other, of course, Winterreise. It's not the first time Die schöne Müllerin has been presented this way, however: a recording pairing German tenor Peter Schreier and Austrian guitarist Konrad Ragossnig, its arrangement by the latter and British composer/guitarist John Duarte, has been a longtime favourite since its release in the ‘70s. In an interesting wrinkle, Leisner, a composer as well as guitarist, once studied with Duarte.

The twenty-five poems Müller published in 1821 developed out of his unrequited passion for poet Luise Hensel, who was also sister-in-law to Fanny Hensel and Felix Mendelssohn. Two years later, Schubert, twenty-six years old at the time, chose to set twenty of them for the cycle, which recounts a young man's emotional trajectory from hope to despair as he, like Müller, sees his love go unrequited. While Schubert scored the cycle for tenor voice, Leisner favours baritone because its range aligns more naturally to the guitar; he also notes that his arrangement “is more faithful to the original in its contrapuntal complexity, its voicing of chords, and its precise rhythms.” In his treatment, the guitar acts as an equal partner to the voice rather than mere support (see “Ungeduld” for an excellent illustration of that balance). Since the main character is a young man, the role is most commonly performed by male singers.

At the cycle's opening, the happiness the journeyman miller feels as he travels through the countryside is vividly conveyed in the joyful character of “Das Wandern” (Wandering), the combination of Kelly's robust voice and Leisner's graceful picking already captivating. Coming upon a brook, the miller decides to follow it, with the cyclical ripples of the guitar mirroring the movements of the water. After arriving at a mill in a forest grove, the delicate “Danksagung an den Bach” (Thanksgiving to the Brook) sees him expressing heartfelt gratitude for having been guided to the enchanting miller's daughter (the “Müllerin”). In the songs that follow, Kelly's delivery grows more fervent and passionate as the miller's ardour deepens, even if his questioning of the brook in the gentle reverie “Der Neugierige” (The Inquirer) about the maiden's feelings is posed with level-headed reserve. Whereas the uptempo restlessness of “Ungeduld" (Impatience) relays his inner agitation, the lyrical “Morgengruss” (Morning Greeting) suggests he's still capable of keeping his emotions under control. That changes a few songs later, however, when “Mein!” (Mine!) finds him ecstatically declaiming before regaining control during “Pause” (Interlude) to reflect on the state of his relationship with the maiden.

Fourteen songs into the cycle, a handsome hunter strides in to rival the jealous miller for her affections, the episode also significant for initiating his downward spiral. Agitation and desperation emerge pointedly in “Eifersucht und Stolz” (Jealousy and Pride) when he sees the maiden flirting with the hunter, which in turn leads to expressions of despair, defiance, bitterness, and self-pity that anticipate the tragic end to come. In growing starker and stripped-down, the musical design reflects the emotional trajectory of the saga too. The penultimate “Der Müller und der Bach” (The Miller and the Brook), for instance, is pitched at a near-whisper, its haunting hush effectively conveying the protagonist's heartbreak and resignation. After surrendering to the pain-free rest promised by the brook, he's sung to eternal sleep in the strophic closer “Des Baches Wiegenlied” (The Brook's Lullaby).

Kelly, a graduate of the Eastman School of Music and the Juilliard School, invests himself fully into the role with an expressive performance acutely sensitive to the emotional shadings and nuances of the work. He's complemented splendidly by Leisner, who when not composing and performing is a faculty member at the Manhattan School of Music. In featuring two elements only, the work engages for its intimate quality and an arrangement that enables the expressiveness of Kelly's vocal delivery and Leisner's poised guitar articulations to be heard with maximum clarity. Theirs is a wonderful addition to the many other treatments the work has received.