Details: Franz Schubert's song cycle from Die Schone Mullerin as a premiere recording? Anyone who wanted to claim this in view of the international discographic landscape would undoubtedly have to reckon with a storm of indignation. Unless, that is, the release announced as a world premiere had something unprecedented to offer - and the present production certainly does: instead of the original and endlessly performed version for voice and piano, cpo offers an all-round successful hypothesis here: The accompaniment, if one can even call the instrumental part that, is provided by Ensemble acht, which has been celebrating success for many years in the line-up of Schubert's octet, and the star tenor Klaus Florian Vogt sings about the twenty stages of the enamored miller, who in the end goes into the water out of disappointment... The extended sound palette is the work of the equally accomplished and sensitive arranger and composer Andreas N. Tarkmann, who has illuminated the romantic nuances of the colorful piano part with an almost poignant feel for the poetic drama. A world premiere!

Franz Schubert - Schubert: The Fair Maid of the Mill (arr. Andreas N. Tarkmann) (CD)