As I recall from nearly fifty years ago, Fischer-Dieskau's treatment of the transition across the rest, from "dieser drei" to "aber die Liebe," is not approached by any of the others, even including the Pitzinger who pauses too long over the rest. Otherwise, Fischer-Dieskau and Pitzinger are comparable, sharing the position of the absolute best. Marian Anderson's weakness is failing to leave enough room for the ideas which lie between the notes. Her speed in the Erlkoenig incurs similar problems; musically and artistically, in both the Brahms and Schubert, she is on the mark, and a truly amazing woman and artist, but I would prefer Schlusnus's Erlkoenig by a wide margin.

The essence of a truly artistic musical performance, as on the Classical dramatic stage, is to enrapture the soul, by moving the performance from the visible stage, to the stage of the audience's imagination. This apotheosis must occur in a hushed moment of silence immediately preceding the utterance of the first tone. The audience must hear the effect of the first sounded interval, rather than the accoustical event as such. The audience must be gripped by suspense, a grip which never lets go until after the last tone has faded into a heavenly distance of silence. The performer must, thus, convince the audience that "I am not my body, but my soul." This is emphatically required for this Brahms, in which Brahms' message is delivered on precisely that premise.

	William Warfield Singing Brahms at the February 2002 Schiller Institute Conference

The object, however, is not imitation. The issue is the challenge of escaping from the prison of a shadow-world of heard sounds, to hear the substance of the musical idea. This may be accomplished only by the method of the Platonic dialectic, by the principle of hypothesis. To this end, Classical composition in the tradition of Bach's (Florentine bel canto) method of well-tempered counterpoint — Keplerian counterpoint — afford us the use of a double palette. The palette of the contrapuntal paradoxes specific to the bel canto singing voice, and the palette of the paradoxes expressed by the ironies, including crucial metaphors, of the subject being addressed musically. These two kinds of ironies, lie between the notes, as transcendental tones sung and heard only in the mind, and as ironies of the subject-matter being treated musically. Nothing better illustrates that doubled irony of great Classical composition, that the great religious music, from Bach's Passions, through Mozart, the later Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert, and Brahms.

To hear the substance sounded between the heard notes, a certain amount of space must be allowed for those paradoxical passing moments in which a change from the course of deductive schoolbook harmony intervenes. It is shaping the interval of the unheard, transcendental sound, as if "between the notes," which won me to undying admiration of Furtwaengler, in early 1946, and Fischer-Dieskau's performance of the Brahms in 1953.

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Why You Should Join The National Conservatory of Music Movement:

Darum sahe ich, daß nichts bessers ist,
denn daß der Mensch frählich sei in seiner Arbeit,
denn das ist sein Teil.

Denn wer will ihn dahin bringen,
daß er sehe, was nach ihm geschehen wird?


2. Ecclesiastes 4:1-3.

Ich wandte mich und sahe an
Alle, die Unrecht leiden unter der Sonne;
Und siehe, da waren Tränen derer,
Die Unrecht litten und hatten keinen Tröster;
Und die ihnen Unrecht täten, waren zu mächtig,
Daß sie keinen Träster haben konnten.

Da lobte ich die Toten,
Die schon gestorben waren
Mehr als die Lebendigen,
Die noch das Leben hatten;
Und der noch nicht ist, ist besser, als alle beide,
Und des Bösen nicht inne wird,
Das unter der Sonne geschieht.


3. Ecclesiastes (Sirach), 41:1-2.

O Tod, wie bitter bist du,
Wenn an dich gedenket ein Mensch,
Der gute Tage und genug hat
Und ohne Sorge lebet;
Und dem es wohl geht in allen Dingen
Und noch wohl essen mag!
O Tod,
wie bitter bist du.

O Tod, wie wohl tust du dem Dürftigen,
Der da schwach und alt ist,
Der in allen Sorgen steckt,
Und nichts Bessers zu hoffen,
Noch zu erwarten hat!
O Tod,
wie wohl tust du!

4. I Corinthians 13:1-3, 12-13.


Wenn ich mit Menschen und mit Engelszungen redete,
Und hätte der Liebe nicht,
So wär' ich ein tönend Erz,
Oder eine klingende Schelle.

Und wenn ich weissagen könnte,
Und wüßte alle Geheimnisse
Und alle Erkenntnis,
Und hätte allen Glauben, also
Daß ich Berge versetzte,
Und hätte der Liebe nicht,
So wäre ich nichts.

Und wenn ich alle meine Habe den Armen gäbe,
Und ließe meinen Leib brennen,
Und hätte der Liebe nicht,
So wäre mir's nichts nütze.

Wir sehen jetzt durch einen Spiegel
In einem dunkeln Worte;
Dann aber von Angesicht zu Angesichte.

Jetzt erkenne ich's stückweise,
Dann aber werd ich's erkennen,
Gleich wie ich erkennet bin.

Nun aber bleibet Glaube, Hoffnung, Liebe,
Diese drei;
Aber die Liebe ist die größeste unter ihnen.

Who knoweth the spirit of man
that goeth upward,
and the spirit of the beast
that goeth downward to the earth?

Wherefore I perceive that there is nothing better,
than that a man should rejoice in his own works;
for that is his portion:

for who shall bring him to see
what shall be after him?


2. Ecclesiastes 4:1-3

So I returned, and considered
all the oppressions that are done under the sun:
and behold the tears of such
as were oppressed, and they had no comforter;
and on the side of their oppressors there was power;
but they had no comforter.

Wherefore I praised the dead
which are already dead
more than the living
which are yet alive.
Yea, better is he than both they, which hath not yet been,
who hath not seen the evil work
that is done under the sun.


3. Ecclesiastes (Sirach), 41:1-2.

O, death, how bitter you are,
in the thoughts of a a man
who has good days, enough
and a sorrow-free life
and who is fortunate in all things,
and still pleased to eat well!
O, death,
how bitter you are,

O death, how well you serve him who is in need
Who is feeble and old,
and is beset by all sorrows,
and has nothing better to hope for
or to expect;
O death,
how well you serve.

4. I Corinthians 13:1-3, 12-13.


Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels,
and have not charity,
I am become as sounding brass,
or a tinkling cymbal.

And though I have the gift of prophecy,
and understand all mysteries,
and all knowledge;
and though I have all fatih,
so that I could remove mountains,
and have not charity,
I am nothing.

And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor,
and though I give my body to be burned,
and have not charity,
it profiteth me nothing.

For now we see through a glass,
darkly;
but then face to face;

now I know in part;
but then I shall know
even as also I am known.

And now abideth faith, hope, agape (love)
these three;
but the greatest of these is agape.