Franz Peter Schubert

“wonderful moments in [the Schubert]…accelerating excitement…monumental effect as a performance overall…” CD Review, April 2011

“Sir Thomas Beecham’s performances with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra may come from another era (mono sound, old-fashioned style), but they convey an electricity and musicianship that most of today’s high-tech recordings lack.” Financial Times, 23rd April 2011 ****

“a very worthwhile addition to the discographies of both Beecham and Schubert. The Rienzi Overture that opens the programme is bold, bullish and bursting with energy...this concert performance becomes a summer garden and the musically evocative phrasing is 100 per cent what Beecham was about. Wonderful!” Gramophone Magazine, April 2011

“his famous capacity for taking a mediocre piece of music and making it seem great could not be better demonstrated than it is in the Rienzi Overture...In a Summer Garden here has the magical quality of the best Beecham performances, when the players rather than the conductor seem to be leading, even inventing, the music as it unfolds.” International Record Review, April 2011

“The Delius...is the pearl - the finest account of this mighty work I have ever heard. Never has the music’s rhythmic force and intensity seemed so overwhelming. Yet equally remarkable is the performance’s beauty: the second movement’s F major episode is wonderfully tender. Beecham never made a studio recording of the great C major, but now we have it.” Sunday Times, 27th February 2011 *****

“a performance of great emotional force and directness...As the emotional intensity of the cycle grows, the particular qualities of this accompanist and his instrument become more and more effective in their support of the almost theatrical fashion in which Bauer, whose rich, accurate baritone is compelling throughout, identifies with the traveller's grief.” International Record Review, March 2011

“Bauer is a thoughtful, personable singer who uses his words expressively. At forte his baritone has an incisive bite: say, in the horrified final climax of "Die Krähe"...He affectingly realises the bleak weariness of "Rast", and addresses the sleeping villagers of "Im Dorfe" with confiding tenderness.” Gramophone Magazine

“This is a performance tingling with nervous energy, with Bauer's baritone a strong and heroic persona throughout its considerable range.. Bauer's quick vibrato, and the taut tension in every rhythmic phrase and figure is matched by the clarity and short decay of Jos van Immerseel's early piano...Immerseel is alert to every rhythmic detail, every second of emphasis - and to the inner voices within Schubert's accompaniment.” BBC Music Magazine, July 2011 ****