Two of the world’s most seasoned Schubertians, both long associated with Wigmore Hall, come together for the next new release from Wigmore Hall Live.
Live from Wigmore Hall - 19 February 2008
This recording comprises 26 of the 53 lieder that Wolf wrote on the poems of Eduard Mörike, born just seven years after Schubert in 1804, but outliving the composer nearly five decades.
Reviewing the concert in Seen & Heard International stated that: “The partnership between Cooper and Holzmair is so close, it’s almost symbiotic”
“Rarely have I heard so sensitive, intelligent and gloriously musical a partnership. No-one could have asked for more attentive, detailed expressions nor more complete harmony of feeling between singer and pianist … I was transfixed by the sheer artistry.” (The Independent)
Wolfgang Holzmair is a native of Upper Austria, and the British pianist Imogen Cooper, whose training included a period in Vienna studying with Paul Badura-Skoda, Jörg Demus and Alfred Brendel.
December 2009
“Holzmair is at his best in those settings which reveal the soul's innermost questionings; he and Cooper capture the fragile ardour of 'Frage und Antwort', and the chromatic unease within 'I'm Frühling'.”
February 2010
“…more often pleasure is virtually unalloyed, whether in the trance-like wonder of "Im Frühling", the tiptoeing delicacy of "Elfenlied" (a hard song for a man to bring off) or the deft comic timing in "Zur Warnung", evidently relished by the Wigmore Hall audience.”
Click on any of the works listed above for alternative recordings.
