 Quel joli disque ! Tobias Koch touche un beau pianoforte de Friedrich Hippe, subtil, feutré, sur lequel Markus Schäffer distille avec subtilité sa singulière voix de ténor de caractère : je n’imaginais pas forcément son timbre, assez proche de celui de Peter Schreier, idéalement apparié à la lyrique schubertienne qui appelle plus naturellement des ténors Mozart, Haeffliger, Dermota, Wunderlich, Breslik aujourd’hui. Mais Schäfer, formé au répertoire baroque qui a remis en prééminence les mots dans la musique, chante son Schubert intime, distille les poèmes, refuse les effets. Pour la lyrique effusive de tout ce qui dans l’assemblage du Schwanengesang vient des poèmes de Rellstab cela sonne d’évidence, mais lorsque l’on passe chez Heine, Schäfer n’hésite pas un instant à corser son timbre, et pour le trio Die Stadt-Am Meer-Der Döppelgänger où les fantômes paraissent, le timbre soudain évoque Julius Patzak. En plus de nous faire un Schwanengesang si singulier, dont il assombrit le propos en choisissant les ossias graves, il ajoute quelques lieder subtilement appariés aux opus ultimes, le Schwanengesang de Senn, Winterabend, le saisissant Die Sterne, Herbst et cette merveille qu’est Auf dem Strom où les rejoint le cor naturel de Stephan Katte. Soudain le paysage s’ouvre, moment magique. Ils devraient bien nous tenter Winterreise. (Discophilia - Artalinna.com) (Jean-Charles Hoffelé) Every period in history has its own tendencies and points of reference. A musical interpretation should always strive to breathe new life into a composer’s legacy by making it audible and understandable in accordance with the here and now. Artists should certainly render the score as authentically as possible; however, thanks to a choice of responsibly assumed liberties and of selfimposed limits in performance practice, they can give their interpretation a highly individual profile. In this new recording we have once again dared to open up our performance experimentally to the sort of effects that emerge from spontaneous improvisation. We have never ceased to ask ourselves (not only in this context): at what point does subjectivity turn into mannerism? How much freedom can, may, and should a recorded interpretation contain? As historically informed practitioners of music, we see ourselves as mediators. Faithfulness to the original begins with a willingness to decode, decipher, and interpret the score; it is not achieved by staring fearfully in awe at the manuscript. To the contrary: we are fully aware that any confrontation with a masterpiece of the past can only be justified if we recreate it anew while maintaining a fragile balance between faithfulness to the musical work and faithfulness to the “text”. We are also well aware that the two latter concepts should not be equated. In this recording we confront the listener with a number of notes that are not in the manuscript, along with a series of unfamiliar phrasings, and several changes we have made in the score.
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