Susan Graham

“Mozart to zarzuela, Handel to Wagner - this generous collection confirms that our greatest tenor is also our most versatile and musically rewarding whatever style.” BBC Music Magazine, November 2011 *****

“'Um mitternacht' works best, with gleaming voice complemented by superb San Francisco clarinets and trumpets - glorious recorded perspectives, too, as ever from this source.” BBC Music Magazine, November 2010 **/***

“From the opening bars of the Wayfarer songs, Hampson demonstrates his mettle as a gifted storyteller, his warm, legato tones awash with dramatic colour. Susan Graham's mezzo brings similar tonal and dramatic light and shade to the Rückert-Lieder. The orchestra has this music just as sussed.” Classic FM Magazine, November 2010 *****

“It is unusual to hear a baritone sing "Urlicht" or indeed "Wo die schönen Trompeten blasen", but that Housman-like tale is here most sympathetically unfolded...[Hampson's] is a performance of terrific presence and power.” Gramophone Magazine, November 2010

“[Graham's] contribution is unquestionably the highlight. She brings great depth of feeling to Liebst du um Schönheit (If you love for beauty) and Um Mitternacht (At Midnight). Indeed, I can’t think of a finer contemporary female interpreter of these songs on disc. Please, someone, record her in the other two cycles.” Sunday Times, 19th September 2010 ***

“Haïm's continuo group plays a vital role in the vibrancy of the performance: six of em...constantly changing colour in an organic tapestry that's continually evolving, improvised in response to the singers or at least that's how it feels...The casting shows similar imagination. [Graham's is] a bigger voice than you might expect, but so intelligently used that the emotional range increases without our tragic heroine threatening to burst out of her corsets.” Andrew McGregor, bbc.co.uk, 27th January 2004

“It might be an exaggeration to say that this new Dido has one foot in England and the other in France, but it is not far from the truth. The conductor and the instrumentalists establish a French style in the overture. Extremes of tempo, exaggerated dotted rhythms, the instrumental timbres, and an abundance of rolled chords and embellishments evoke spectacles staged at Versailles” Classical Net, 2004

“With Susan Graham in radiant form and Malcolm Martineau not just an accompanist but an active partner in the project, "Un frisson français" offers a unique survey of French mélodie from the mid-19th century to the mid-20th: 22 songs… one composer. A rich collection in excellent sound: no one is likely to be disappointed.” Gramophone Magazine, November 2008

“The familiar here appears in unusual contexts and alongside a scattering of rarities. The performers are at one in their fluency, delicate rubato and avoidance of Anglo-Saxon archness, within an acoustic that combines intimacy and atmosphere.” BBC Music Magazine, November 2008 *****

“With Susan Graham in radiant form and Malcolm Martineau not just an accompanist but an active partner in the project, 'Un frisson français' offers a unique survey of French mélodie from the mid–19th century to the mid–20th: 22 songs…one per composer.
Martineau describes the plan as a 'tasting menu', starting with Gounod, to whom he ascribes the launching of the genre of French mélodie. Even Ravel said that Gounod was 'the true founder of the mélodie in France' and his song 'Au rossignol' ('To the Nightingale') is included in the first of five sections – 'founding fathers', including Bizet, Franck, Lalo and Saint–Saëns. It is fascinating to hear the original version with piano of 'Danse macabre', Graham marvellously biting.
Martineau describes the sequence as 'loosely chronological', and one beauty of the scheme is that rare and forgotten composers are included, such as Paladilhe and Bachelet who are represented in late–Romantic mélodies with night and nature dominating themes. The third group – including Ravel and Debussy – takes us into the 20th century. Especially fascinating is André Caplet's setting of 'Le corbeau et le renard' ('The Crow and the Fox') with elaborate piano accompaniment.
Only rare songs are chosen for each composer and perhaps Martineau chose some of them for the colourful accompaniments, as in Chausson's fluttering accompaniment for his picture of the butterfly in 'Le papillon'. The fourth section has childhood as a common theme and the climactic section has only one song, much the longest, Poulenc's 'La dame de Monte-Carlo', to words by Jean Cocteau. It is like an encapsulated version of the operatic monodrama La voix humaine with the singer on the verge of a breakdown.
A rich collection in excellent sound: no one is likely to be disappointed.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“Rattle, displays the easy lyricism one might anticipate, but more power and atmosphere - Berlioz grandioso. Cléopâtre is also a big-screen performance. Mezzo-soprano Susan Graham, today's reigning Dido, makes Berlioz's earlier heroine equally epic… it's a welcome coupling.” BBC Music Magazine, September 2008 ****

“Rattle and the Berliners are capable of taking one’s breath away” Gramophone Magazine

“The opening "Rêveries - Passions" is one of the great musical expressions of sexual infatuation, one that Sir Simon Rattle shapes well… The Berlin soloists make a gorgeous sounds, the lead clarinet and cor anglais especially… La mort de Cléopâtre is… prime-cut Berlioz, outrageously advanced for its time (1827-30). Rattle obviously relishes the music's ghostly aura, much as he focuses the pre-Roméo atmosphere near the start of the "Scène lyrique". Susan Graham enacts the music's drama with a sense of theatre and a frequently rich tone, especially in the "Meditation".” Gramophone Magazine, November 2008

“inspired by Simon Rattle,[the Berlin Philharmonic] give a superb performance of the symphony. Too little is made of the bass drum’s important part in the finale - but in every other respect the playing is exemplary, with the strings really singing their music and the wind matching them with equal force. Rattle, while achieving exceptionally wide dynamic range, shapes the work with a sure hand.” Sunday Times, 14th September 2008 ****

“this is a plush, silky-smooth reading, with the Berlin sound at its most opulent and refined. Until Rattle finally gives the orchestra its head in the closing pages, the performance has a Karajan-like svelteness” The Guardian, 26th September 2008 ****

“Berlioz blended opera with symphonic form in this blazing outburst of passion, vividly realised by this wonderful ensemble.” Anthony Holden, The Observer, 31st August 2008

“This must be one of the most beautifully played performances of the Symphonie fantastique on disc. Textures have been honed, everything points to an almost obsessive search for perfection, and Simon Rattle has his players paying attention to every last detail of expression and articulation in the score.” The Telegraph, 6th September 2008