Jamie Barton sings "Gretchen am Spinnrade" (Schubert)

Mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton sings "Gretchen am Spinnrade" by Schubert with pianist Richard Bado at the Aspen Music Festival.

[@nicolemitchell2477]

The singer and pianist are BOTH WONDERFUL!!!

[@65attila]

Top notch singer and artist.

[@Ruffiello]

The problem might be microphone placement. Her voice is very large. In the hall it might have had a very different effect.

[@tatianalennox5703]

Jamie is wonderful, but who is this pianist? He's ruining the complete piece. Not good.

[@joaoaurelio1534]

it's not the tempi, he's too loud, too hammered. it's like they're fighting each other, ofc the piano has he's own part of the story but should be a pillow for the voice to lie upon. It lacks fluidity that the line asks for

[@238assante]

i don't think he's too loud, but the miking is probably wrong. The recording engineer should have lowered the piano tracks a bit to balance it out. the fact he's a bit too dry is another story.

[@sea1song]

I didn't think the piano was too loud. Jamie's voice is big, and it supported the volume well. She also has a romantic heat in the voice. If her voice was smaller, perhaps I would agree, but if the piano would be too held back, that takes away a bit of the excitement of the piece. I've heard performances where the piano was almost like a whisper, but the voice was soubrette to light lyric.

[@echo9phpe]

The title of the song is "Gretchen at the Spinning Wheel", indicating a struggle between the relentless, eternally recurring movement of the wheel, reminding us of the wheel of fortune, and the voice of Faust's lover which tries to escape the damning fate of the eternal recurrence of love lost. I am not aware of any other rendering in which the pianist brings this character which goes far beyond the usual accompanying role so extraordinarily well, taking up the excitement of the singer, but never leaving the "dry" range of the wheel movement.

[@joymorin759]

The piano accompaniment specifies staccato in left hand, legato in right, so no pedal is a good choice. It represents the spinning wheel, so needs to be heard and doesnt drown her voice. The dynamics are respected, as are the tempi changes.

[@orion8835]

Her vowels are just too covered to get any of the diction ….very important. The piano sounds terribly muddled the line is too blurry.