Christa Ludwig - Schubert: 15 Lieder (2004)

As a matter of fact, this is your parents' Schubert lieder recital. Back in the '60s, when you were up in your bedroom listening the Beatles on your portable record player, your mom and dad were downstairs listening to Christa Ludwig on the console housed in the hutch. And while they wished you'd turn your music down, you wished they'd turn down their music down.
But the times have changed and, these days, while you're probably still listening to the Beatles, hopefully you've also grown into an appreciation of Schubert. And if you have, this wonderful recording by the young Christa Ludwig will be just the thing to bring back the half-heard memories of your youth. Because, your parents' Schubert recital or not, Ludwig's 1967 Schubert recording -- augmented on this disc with a couple of Schubert recordings from 1959 -- is as beautiful and gracious and loving a Schubert lieder recital as has ever been recorded. Ludwig's voice is a rich, warm instrument and her ability to live inside the heart of a song and to project its innermost soul is as convincing as the best singers in any genre. With pianist Geoffrey Parsons on the 1967 recordings and Gerald Moore on the 1959 recordings, Ludwig had two of the finest accompanists ever to tickle the ivories, and with clarinetist Gervase de Peyer on Der Hirt auf dem Felsen, Ludwig had one of the most suave clarinetists. EMI's remastered stereo sound is of its time, but nevertheless transcends time.