Described by Opera magazine as ‘Britain’s best baritone’, London-born Roderick Williams and leading pianist Helmut Deutsch perform an atmospheric Liederabend, featuring some of the most inspiring German songs of the 19th century. Immersing himself in the great range of moods portrayed through his programme, from the celebratory outpouring of praise in Wolf’s ‘Gesegnet sei, durch den die Welt entstund’ to the sorrowful resignation to heartbreak in Schumann’s ‘Alte Leute’, Williams’s dramatic narrations are emotionally engaging throughout. Complemented by Deutsch’s superlative pianism, this recording is unforgettably poignant – a ‘must have’ for lovers of Lieder.
December 2012
“you can tell that he’s taken considerable trouble to study the poetry and to understand it so that he puts it across to his audience with exceptional intelligence. He also characterises the texts very well indeed..throughout this recital Roderick Williams’s use of his top register is quite superb...This is a marvellous, deeply satisfying lieder recital and we should be thankful that it’s been preserved on disc for a wide audience to savour.”
January 2013
****
“the sense of a wondering fragile sensibility is communicated to us through his characteristic loving attention to words - and to the presence of his audience. This intimacy of communication and word-liveliness also makes bright vignettes of six love songs, sacred and profane, from Hugo Wolf's Italian Songbook...Williams and Deutsch are alert to every quicksilver mood-change.”
February 2013
“Williams gives consistent pleasure with his rounded high baritone and unexaggerated response to mood and character...Fading into reverie, the Kerner songs are a brave choice to end a recital. But Williams vindicates it with his blanched pianissimo, a wounded, disenchanted spirit withdrawing from the world.”
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