Susanne Heinrich

“Robert King has always been able to assemble the right people for the right job...he combines the contrasting timbres of Carolyn Sampson (soprano) and Marianne Beate Kielland (mezzo) in sumptuous performances of three works by Couperin. Sampson’s brightness and Kielland’s riper tones beautifully complement each other.” Sunday Times, 10th March 2013

“Carolyn Sampson and Marianne Beate Kielland [find] liquid lyricism for the vocal arabesques that Couperin weaves around the introductory letters of the Hebrew alphabet...A disc that brings to life a body of music that fully merits the expressive finesse these performers bring to it.” The Telegraph, 29th March 2013 ****

“Another hit for the King Consort's new label Vivat. The gorgeous Trois leçons de ténèbres...are remarkable for their intertwining, sensual dissonances: here the idiomatic (though not vibrato-free) voices of soprano Carolyn Sampson and mezzo Marianne Beate Kielland are recorded quite close, so the detail tells...the eloquent centrepiece is the third lesson for them both, absolutely spine-tingling in its intensity.” The Observer, 7th April 2013

“[Sampson and Kielland] deliver fresh performances that are at once serious, stylish and beautifully judged...Well worth acquiring.” Gramophone Magazine, May 2013

“the delightful purity and seeming weightlessness of Sampson's voice, at times soaring ethereally in delicate melismas, is perfectly complemented by the warmer character of the Norwegian mezzo-soprano...The instrumental support for the Lecons is discreet, a model of refined restraint...King's own notes are packed with priceless information and valuable insight.” International Record Review, May 2013

“The two singers complement each other beautifully in the final setting, Kielland's reedy voice, with its somewhat androgynous quality, throwing Sampson's crystalline soprano into high relief and adding a slight edginess that prevents the performances from becoming too saccharine.” BBC Music Magazine, June 2013 *****

“the viola da gamba (bass viol) is best suited to slow, contemplative music, of which there is plenty here...The results are hushed and illuminating. The great Chaconne from the D minor partita is heard as through a glass darkly.” The Observer, 18th May 2013

“Ah, but the music! The melancholy of the opening and closing tracks is bewitching. Here, and elsewhere on the disc, Heinrich dramatically - often poetically - conveys Hume's deeply personal, seemingly reflective musical utterances...Bravo!” Gramophone Magazine, May 2010

“Every now and then, a CD is released that knocks one’s reviewing socks off with its combined originality of repertoire and quality of musical performance...the music dances, muses and mourns within her warm tone. The ornamentation is clean and elegant, rubatos are beautifully judged, and technical challenges are carried off with a sense of effortlessness.” Charlotte Gardner, bbc.co.uk, 28th April 2010

“Susanne Heinrich rises ably to the challenge of understanding this 18th-century Jekyll-and-Hyde figure, heightening to fine effect the music's light and shade, energy and indolence. Her readings are effortlessly poised and imbued with an almost vocal lyricism...” BBC Music Magazine, February 2008 ****

“Heinrich brings… exactly the right blend of emotional involvement and earnest good taste, and find pleasing resonance and smoothness in her instrument… An unsuspected and atmospheric gem…” Gramophone Magazine, Janurary 2008

“The first time I put this disc in my player, I  wasn’t in the mood. I  tried again a few days later and was absolutely entranced. Carl Friedrich Abel was a pupil of Bach’s and the influence shows, but the younger composer’s own breadth of invention is breathtaking. As are the dark, velvety colours that viola da gamba player Susanne Heinrich finds in his long lines. A  really special album, this.” Gramophone Magazine

“Until the release of this new recording the fascinating world of Abel’s gamba music has been pretty much a closed book … Abel inclined towards simplicity and elegance, and Heinrich is always at pains to bring out the singing quality of the melodic lines … from the outset Heinrich confidently masters the multiple stopping and the wide range of the music … throughout, Heinrich succeeds triumphantly in crafting each piece individually— creating a special atmosphere for each work” International Record Review

“Carl Friedrich Abel is usually thought of as a genial symphonist much in the mould of his London concert-promoting business partner JC Bach, but this delightful release shows that anyone considering on that basis not to delve further into Abel's output is missing not only an important side of the man, but indeed his very core. Abel was one of the last masters of the viola da gamba, and in these unaccompanied pieces he reveals an intimate art which instantly makes sense of the affection and reverence in which he was held by his friends, they being the ones who got to hear him improvising at home in front of the fire and left touching accounts of his power to stir their emotions. 'He was the Sterne of music' is how one described him, which is saying something.
Susanne Heinrich has chosen 24 solo gamba pieces from the 30 contained in a manuscript in the New York Public Library which surely represent the kind of music Abel played in those domestic musical occasions. Unencumbered by showy virtuosity, they are never less than supremely elegant, yet at their best exhibit profound sentiment in the word's exquisite 18thcentury sense. Four of the pieces are grouped together to make a sonata, but the others are free-standing and range from deeply felt adagios to lightly arpeggiated preludes, and from suave minuets to the occasional faintly rustic dance. Heinrich brings to them exactly the right blend of emotional involvement and earnest good taste, and finds pleasing resonance and smoothness in her instrument, such that even nearly 80 minutes of solo gamba never tires the ear. An unsuspected and atmospheric gem.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“Abel’s pieces are reminiscent of J S Bach’s solo cello suites, so if you like them then you’ll like these...Sensibility, or the practise of articulating direct and strong emotions, was all the rage in the arts world at the time, and Suzanne Heinrich beautifully draws this out of Abel’s writing.” Charlotte Gardner, bbc.co.uk, 5th October 2007

“Carter has given us de Murcia’s full stylistic and international range on this wonderful CD...De Murcia’s music, by turns sultry and playful, is brought to life by Carter’s light, dextrous, precise yet relaxed playing. This is real summer listening, conjuring up warmer climes than here.” Charlotte Gardner, bbc.co.uk, 1st January 2007

“Santiago de Murcia (1682-1732) was the last, and possibly greatest, Spanish exponent of the five-course Baroque guitar, his music achieving a perfect balance between the strummed and plucked styles that were prevalent at the time. Throughout, Carter somehow conjures up the sights and sounds of a bygone age with the mastery of a real dramatist, counterbalancing flurries of overlapped scales, energetic strumming and virtuoso trills with the richness and warmth of the more reflective passages…Quite simply it contains some of the finest Baroque guitar playing you'll ever hear” Gramophone Magazine, August 2007

“There is a pleasing energy in this playing which is also supple, fluent and idiomatic. The fast movements of Telemann's two fine G major Quartets for flute, two viole di gamba and harpsichord… offer persuasive examples of what I mean.” BBC Music Magazine, October 2006 ****

“Charivari Agréable offer tasteful and well behaved performances…” Gramophone Magazine, Awards 2006

“one of the classiest baroque bands” The Observer

"an inspired concept...outstanding in every respect" - BBC Music Magazine (Disc of the Month)