Lieder der Heimat Album
Regula Mühlemann’s newest album with Sony Classical, Lieder der Heimat, features songs by Franz Schubert and from her Swiss homeland.
With her first two albums, Ms. Mühlemann established her reputation as a rising opera star and concert singer. In 2016, the young Swiss soprano impressed with Mozart Arias (she won the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik with her debut album). In her following album, Cleopatra, Ms. Mühlemann performed arias by Handel and Vivaldi brilliantly and was awarded an Opus Klassik for it. On her third album she presents herself as an artistically expressive Lieder singer with a rich repertoire. Born and residing in Switzerland, the musician has dedicated a large part of her new album, Lieder der Heimat, to unknown Swiss composers, along with well-known works by Franz Schubert.
As the album title suggests, the themes of home, nature, hiking, farewell and longing form the leitmotif of the programme, which Mühlemann recorded with her long-standing accompanist Tatiana Korsunskaya. It was clear to the interpreter from the start that Franz Schubert would play an essential role in this: “Schubert’s settings show that home and nature are inseparably linked. That the image of nature evokes a strong sense of homeland in people, no matter where they come from”. For the clarinet part in the famous “Der Hirt auf dem Felsen”, Daniel Ottensamer, solo clarinettist of the Vienna Philharmonic joined her, and Konstantin Timokhine, solo hornist with the Basel Chamber Orchestra, plays in “Auf dem Strom”.
The romantic and late romantic works in all four Swiss national languages have largely been recorded for the first time. Some of these songs were probably only now sung again since their creation. They are penned by the following Swiss composers: Wagner friend Wilhelm Baumgartner, Othmar Schoeck, Richard Flury, Emil Frey, Richard Langer, Friedrich Niggli, Marguerite Roesgen-Champion and Walther Geiser. The “Old Guggisberger song” is one of the most famous Swiss folk songs.
Lieder der Heimat will be available for purchase in Europe on November 8. Pre-order your copy now!