Delian Quartett
Claudia Barainsky
In wachen Traume

Claudia Barainsky soprano
Adrian Pinzaru violin
Andreas Moscho violin
Lara Albesano viola
Hendrik Blumenroth violoncello
Mikhail Timoshenko baritone
Matthias Lingenfelder second viola
Andreas Arndt second violoncello
Recorded October 2021, Abtei Marienmünster, Konzertsaal
Engineer: Friedrich Wilhelm Rödding
Cover photo: Woong Chul An
Album produced by Guido Gorna
Release date: June 21, 2024

Im wachen Traume tells an old story in new terms. The title (“In a waking dream”) references Frauenliebe und Leben, op. 42, by Robert Schumann (1810-1856), whose eight-part song cycle serves as the program’s centerpiece. This setting of eight poems by Adelbert von Chamisso (1781-1838) about a woman’s tragic fate is arranged for soprano and string quartet by late composer Aribert Reimann (1936-2024) for those performing it here—another clue to the album’s name. In 2018, while drifting off to sleep, Reimann heard the song cycle in his head with a string quartet instead of a piano. Unable to relinquish the idea, he completed the present version in under two months.

In his liner notes, violinist Andreas Moscho describes a dual theme of love and death. “None of the works selected here,” he observes, “were originally conceived for string quartet. In all of them, however, the string quartet seems to return home.” Reimann enhances the score with careful yet natural adornments, rendered telepathically by the Delian Quartett and soprano Claudia Barainsky. “Helft mir, ihr Schwestern” (Help me, my sisters) and “Süßer Freund, du blickest” (Sweet friend, you look) lend themselves so organically to the format that one can hardly imagine them any other way. Highlights include the chordal exchanges and trembling cello of “Er, der Herrlichste von allen” (He, the most wonderful of all), the pizzicato accents of “Ich kann’s nicht fassen, nicht glauben” (I cannot grasp it, believe it), and the glassy harmonics of “An meinem Herzen, an meiner Brust” (On my heart, at my breast). Barainsky emotes with a seasoned charm that feels utterly genuine. She is an embodied vocalist who understands that texts must be first spoken to be sung.

The one poem not included by Schumann is Chamisso’s ninth, “Traum der eignen Tage” (Dream of my own days), in which the wisdom of old age is offered as a gift to one whose life still lies ahead. Perhaps no more fitting connection could be made to the works by William Byrd (c. 1543-1623) and Henry Purcell (1659-1695) pillowing this Schumannic gem. While these luminaries of Renaissance and Baroque eras might seem unlikely companions, one can hardly deny that the Venn diagram of their shared interest in worldly things makes their spiritual complements stand out all the more.

As the music of Byrd, in arrangements by Stefano Pierini, demonstrates, this dichotomy is crucial. Diametric vignettes like “Sing joyfully” and “Ave verum corpus” are proof positive of the Delians’ uncanny sympathy, while “Jhon come kisse me now” (a bawdy lyric reconstructed from Byrd’s own harpsichord variations) drips with honey from Barainsky’s lips. Meanwhile, the latter’s rendering of “Out of the orient, crystal skies” shines in its telling of the nativity, while the strings evoke the humility of the manger. In the tender “Lullaby, my sweet little baby,” Barainsky is joined by baritone Mikhail Timoshenko to rebuke King Herod’s tragic decree (represented in vocalise) from the point of view of the Virgin Mary.

The two singers join forces further back in time for Purcell’s “Hear my prayer, O Lord.” With Matthias Lingenfelder and Andreas Arndt seconding on viola and cello, respectively, they create a wordless but no less ecclesiastical sense of grandeur. Preceding them are the Pavane and Chaconne, both in G minor, each an interlocking canvas of pastel and charcoal, and between them, “When I am laid in earth” from the opera Dido and Aeneas (also arranged by Pierini). Barainsky lays bare her respect for the tragedy, nevertheless finding beauty in it. And is that not how we survive?