CREATIVE BEAUTY

'... clearly thought through and, as everything
under Graham Johnson's direction, entirely convincing.'

A visit to the Hyperion Schubert Edition -
with DAVID WILKINS

As the hair turns a touch greyer, there are mixed feelings about the supposed privilege of having lived through the great monuments of the recorded archive. Well -- for better or worse -- what are they? The Solti 'Ring', of course. Bernstein's and Tennstedt's Mahler symphony cycles, Karajan's 1962 Beethoven symphonies. I'd describe their reputation as incontestable. Others are a bit more subjective, perhaps. A personal list would have to include a youthful Barenboim's startling majesty in the Beethoven piano sonatas, Katchen's Brahms and Rubenstein's Chopin; Kertesz's vital Dvorak symphonies and Dorati's Haydn series; the Fitzwilliam's way with Shostakovitch quartets and most of Muti's with Verdi operas. There are more, of course, and -- after a while -- it becomes a personal indulgence (best left, therefore, to you ....) There is no doubt, however, that the Hyperion Schubert songs edition deserves to join the pantheon as, at least, a 'primus inter pares' : with mastermind instigator, accompanist and annotator -- Graham Johnson -- as First Lord of a very wealthy Treasury.

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