SCHUMANN

Scenes from Goethe’s Faust Soloists

Warsaw Boys’ Choir

Warsaw Philharmonic Choir & Orchestra / Antoni Wit

Goethe’s Faust is one of the highest peaks of German Romantic poetry, and fascinated composers across Europe: Berlioz, Liszt and Gounod were just some of the many entranced by its visionary power. Schumann too set what he called “Scenes from Goethe’s Faust”, but he made a point of selecting excerpts rather than using a libretto, focusing more on Part 2 of the play. The result is a work of astonishing passion, which includes some of the most dramatic music Schumann ever wrote, and some of the most beautiful as well, embracing elements of oratorio, opera, song and orchestral poem. Antoni Wit’s recording has been acclaimed for “tempos which flow with unforced naturalness and real excitement.”

(ClassicsToday.com)

Schumann’s Faust is a magnificent though often misunderstood work. Two frontrunners, critically speaking, are the recordings conducted by Benjamin Britten on Decca and Pierre Boulez, now on Opera D’oro, and though both feature Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, they are both nearly 40 years old now and sonically compromised.

Antoni Wit, one of the most highly regarded Polish conductors, studied conducting with Henryk Czyz and composition with Krzysztof Penderecki at the Academy of Music in Kraków, subsequently continuing his studies with Nadia Boulanger in Paris. In 2002 he became managing and artistic director of the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra.

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