Regula Mühlemann: Songs from Home

Contents Schubert: Der Hirt auf dem Felsen, D965 (Von Chezy / Muller) Schubert: Im Frühling, D882 Schubert: Der Knabe, D692 Baumgartner, W: Noch sind die Tage der Rosen, Op. 24, No. 1 Baumgartner, W: Du bist wie eine Blume, Op. 10, No. 1 Baumgartner, W: Ein Stündlein wohl vor Tag, Op. 10, No. 5 Baumgartner, W: Wenn die Sonne lieblich schiene, Op. 4, No. 5 Baumgartner, W: An den Abendstern Op. 19, No. 2 Schoeck: In der Fremde, Op. 15, No. 4 Schubert: Auf dem Strom, D943, Op. post. 119 Flury: Wandern mit Dir Frey, E: Junges Mädchen in den Bergen, Op. 49 No. 1 Richard Langer: Edelwyss, Op. 31 trad.: Das alte Guggisberger-Lied Niggli: Plange, Op. 10, No. 1 Liszt: Au lac de Wallenstadt (Années de pèlerinage I, S. 160 No. 2) Roesgen-Champion: Cette étoite perdue Roesgen-Champion: Une jeune fille parle Geiser: Zwei romanische Lieder, Op. 19 I. Primavera, II. Dorma Schubert: La pastorella al prato, D528 (Goldoni) Rossini: Soirées musicales: La pastorella dell’Alpi

With her enthusiastically received “Mozart” and “Cleopatra” bestseller albums on Sony Classical and numerous television appearances, the young Swiss singer Regula Mühlemann quickly became a shooting star of the classical music scene. “As graceful as her appearance is the voice of the young Swiss star soprano: lyrical and bright, soft in timbre, clear in the high notes” writes the critics. On her third album, Mühlemann presents herself as an artistically expressive and, in terms of repertoire, incredibly curious lied singer.

For her album “Lieder der Heimat” (1797-1828), for example, the musician, who lives in Switzerland, not only combined songs by Franz Schubert (1797-1828) with partly folksy songs by Swiss composers, but also recorded them in the four Swiss national languages. The themes of home, nature, hiking, farewell and longing form the central theme of the repertoire that Mühlemann has recorded with her long-time accompanist Tatiana Korsunskaya. The three Schubert songs, “Der Hirt auf dem Felsen”, “Im Frühling” and “Der Knabe” are all about home and nature. With the composition “Der Hirt auf dem Felsen” (The Shepherd on the Rock), composed in the year of Schubert’s death, in which the additional clarinet part is played by Daniel Ottensamer, the pastoral scene contains numerous echoes, as they recur in other songs on the album and recall the evening calls of the shepherds in the Alps.

In her search for songs from her homeland, Regula Mühlemann made a particularly good find in the work of the composer Wilhelm Baumgartner (1820-1867), who died in Zurich. Schubert’s works are followed by several songs by Baumgartner including “Noch sind die Tage der Rosen” and “Du bist wie eine Blume”. The album also features “In der Fremde”, a piece by Othmar Schoeck (1886-1957), who is regarded as the most successful song composer from Switzerland who was taught by Max Reger in Leipzig. Further song discoveries were made by Richard Flury (“Wandern mit dir”), Emil Frey (“Junges Mädchen in den Bergen”), Richard Langer (“Edelwyss”), Friedrich Niggli (“Plange”), Walther Geiser (“Duos chanzuns rumantschas”) and the composer Marguerite Roesgen-Champion (“Poétique du ciel”), who was born in Geneva and trained there by Ernest Bloch. And with the “Das alte Guggisberger-Lied” even an old tune can be heard, which is also known under the title “Der Simelibärg” and was included in the “Collection of Swiss Cow Rows and Folk Songs” by Johann Rudolf Wyss around 1812.