Graham Johnson (1) (1950–)

This book accompanied the box set of 40 CDs released by Hyperion in 2005, containing the complete songs of Franz Schubert. The basis of the text is the pioneering work of Richard Wigmore, whose English translations are included here alongside the German original texts. As this box set was ordered chronologically (unlike the CDs when originally released) it contains the songs in that order, with biographical notes throughout on Schubert year by year.

Highly valuable if you somehow find it on its own, but Wigmore's own text from the 1980s is more sensible as the songs there are in alphabetical order, which will make more sense unless you have the Hyperion set (in which case you already have the book!).… (more)

This book is the bee's knees if you're interested in French vocal music. I've been working on some Poulenc just now; the translations here have opened my eyes to how cryptic and deceptive French colloquialisms as used in modern poetry can be. If you're not a native speaker and you need to decipher, say, some Apollinaire to sing, you aren't going to make it with a Collins Abridged. The composer biographies/evaluations are chatty, slightly eccentric, fun to read and wear their subjectivity on their sleeves. Songs about cats are meticulously underlined.… (more)