Brahms: Im Garten, Op. 70 No. 1

Following the iconic series of the complete songs of Schubert and Schumann, Graham Johnson further demonstrates the phenomenal depth of his knowledge in the expert programming of this recital. Each disc in the series represents a different journey through the repertoire, and thus through Brahms’s life. This new volume is sensitively balanced, the opening and closing folksong transcriptions possessing beguiling charm and the five songs of Op 49 being performed in their entirety.

Hyperion is thrilled to welcome the young German tenor Simon Bode to the label. At home in the opera house and the recital hall, Bode possesses a controlled voice of great beauty, and gives performances of immediacy and conviction. Johnson, as accompanist, is immaculate and his usual scholarly notes are of course included.

This highly regarded recording of a collection of lieder by Brahms was first released in 1982 and features one of the outstanding singers of her generation, the German mezzo-soprano Brigitte Fassbaender. The pianist is Irwin Gage, and they are joined on two of the songs by the viola player Thomas Riebl.

Brigitte Fassbaender’s international career took off when she appeared as Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in 1971. Since then she has appeared in all of the major opera houses around the world in roles such as as Clairon in Capriccio, the Composer in Ariadne auf Naxos, Fricka in Die Walküre, Carmen in Carmen, Orlovsky in Die Fledermaus, Amneris in Aïda, Maddalena in Rigoletto, Eboli in Don Carlos, and Klytemnestra in Elektra. Brigitte Fassbaender has also been successful as a lieder singer. In 1987, she won a Gramophone Award for her Deutsche Gramophon disc of songs by Franz Liszt and Richard Strauss.

Johannes Brahms was a prolific composer of Lieder and wrote around 200 during his lifetime. The first collection appeared in 1853, when Brahms had just turned 20, and the last was published in 1896, just a few months before his death.