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Das Marienleben Op. 27 on CD

Is the greatest song cycle ever written. - at least Glenn Gould is very clear in his judgement of Paul Hindemith's Marienleben. This superlative does not necessarily have to be shared, but it is certainly worth hearing and marvelling at what the 27-year-old, who was already one of Germany's best-known musicians in 1923, achieved. Celebrated as an instrumentalist, Hindemith was considered a bourgeois terror as a composer, provoking with sayings such as "Tonschönheit ist Nebensache" (beauty of tone is a secondary matter) or "Nimm nehmen keine Rücksicht auf, was Du in der Klavierstunde gelernt hast" (have no regard for what you learned in piano lessons). In Mary's Life, based on a collection of poems by Rainer Maria Rilke, he shows a completely different, internalised side. "There is something in these songs that forces and fascinates the listener beyond all habits of conventional song manner" wrote a contemporary reviewer, and to this day there is nothing to add. Yvonne Friedli and Constantin Alex make it palpable in their sensitive interpretation.