About this Artist

• Biography

Editorial Reviews

In Graham Johnson's Schubert edition, there are volumes of songs about water, flowers, night, death, gods, religion, and just about every other subject Schubert's songs sing about. This volume is about sacred and profane songs and, in Schubert's oeuvre, they don't get any more sacred than "Ellens Gesang III Ave Marie (D. 839)" or any more profane than "Die Männer sind méchant (D. 866/3)." The former sets a prayer to the Virgin and the latter is a reminder to young women to sell their virginity for as high a price as the market will bear. One might have thought that going from the church to the brothel might be beyond any one singer, but Marie McLaughlin moves between the two with the ease of a woman who is at home in both places. Her voice is so ethereal, so pure, so devout in "Ellens Gesang III," "Das Marienbild (D. 623)," "Gretchen (D. 564)," and all the other sacred songs on the program that one might be forgiven for thinking she never left the convent. But then her voice is so knowing, so sensual, so sexual in "Die Männer sind méchant," "Die Unterscheidung (D. 866/1)," and especially her recklessly passionate "Gretchen am Spinnrade D. 118," that one might be forgiven for thinking she'd walked the streets in her youth. Johnson is right there with her, kneeling in church, carousing in the brothel, and -- because he is Graham Johnson -- writing the best program notes about his experiences that have ever graced a disc of recorded music. James Leonard, All Music Guide

Customer Reviews

• Listener Rating: