Wolf, H: Um Mitternacht (No. 19 from Mörike-Lieder)

“a really exciting event” Gramophone Magazine

“The most impressive debut disc since Bryn Terfel was a lad” Classic FM Magazine *****

“…a riveting solo debut recital from the young Dutch mezzo Christianne Stotijn… A gust of wind blows this recital in, and blows it out: Stotijn and her robustly proactive accompanist Joseph Breinl start with the raging storms of Schubert's 'Im Walde', and end with Wolf's setting of Mörike's 'Lied vom Winde'. In the Schubert, in particular, Stotijn achieves a rare fusion: she evokes simultaneously both the physical scene and the inner soul-state, which responds to it.” BBC Music Magazine, April 2006 *****

“[the programme] plays out its chronological narrative – songs depicting specific hours of a sleepless night – with logical and psychological inevitability...Berger sustains a magnetic affection throughout the varied sequence, aided by Iain Burnside’s deft pianism.” The Scotsman, 30th July 2012 ****

“Berger is a gem of a singer” Los Angeles Times

“Burnside handles everything with aplomb and insight'” Sunday Times

“His tone is beautiful, his technique immaculate. He does extraordinary things with breath control in Oh! Quand Je Dors and Wolf's Um Mitternacht, and his sense of line is exceptional...Iain Burnside is wonderfully responsive to his shifts in mood and style. An idiosyncratic disc, but very fine.” The Guardian, 9th August 2012 ****

“You’ll be beguiled by Berger’s voice and entranced by the more left-field musical choices...Songs by Wolf and Liszt dominate post-midnight, and after Morgen we get a couple of encores, including a tiny Gounod number sufficiently breezy to banish the introspective mood and leave one feeling invigorated, not depressed.” The Arts Desk, 8th September 2012

“[Burnside] is unfailingly sensitive and powerfully communicative throughout. The dreamy undulations of Mandoline are a knockout, as is the gently suggestive accompaniment to Wolf’s Um Mitternacht, to name but two examples.” MusicWeb International, October 2012

“Berger has a warm, resonant baritone and an hour spent in its company is a pleasurable experience … the partnership between Berger and Iain Burnside yields some fine performances.” Gramophone Magazine, November 2012

“Much in this recital gives satisfaction and pleasure. First of all comes the sound of the voice, warm, full, smoothly emitted and steady. One notes too the use of legato, enabling lines and notes to flow” International Record Review, December 2012

“Berger's grainy baritone is pleasing more than awe-inspiring...But he communicates with keen enthusiasm, and his word-lively Mozart Abendempfindung immediately draws the listener in to this artfully selected and ordered programme. With Iain Burnside as accompanist, there are light-filled starry nights aplenty” BBC Music Magazine, February 2013 ***

“their performances are acutely sensitive to Wolf's musical nerve system. And, best of all, a sense of intimacy, of close confiding with the audience, really does come over - invaluable for private listening...Festival director Sholto Kynoch is a vivid and sentient accompanist.” BBC Music Magazine, September 2011 ****

“Grevilius’s mezzo rises to the challenge of “Seufzer” and Daneman’s soprano brings sweetness to “Zitronenfalter im April”.” Financial Times, 25th June 2011 **

“The team of four singers is first-rate, responsive in every way, and if anything even more remarkable is the work of their pianist, Sholto Kynoch, displaying an exceptional expressive range, not only ideally agile but with the most subtle range of tone and dynamic...Altogether an impressive achievement from an enterprising new company.” Gramophone Magazine, January 2011

“Daneman, Grevelius, Gilchrist and Loges are top-flight lieder singers, with Oxford Lieder founder and pianist Sholto Kynoch offering sensitive support. Richard Stokes provides excellent notes and translations.” The Observer, 22nd May 2011

“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'.” BBC Music Magazine, December 2009

“…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.” Gramophone Magazine, February 2010

“Still too little known outside Germany, Roman Trekel brings to his selection of 22 Mörike Lieder a voice of burnt umber, a scrupulous sense of style (including a true legato) and a probing imagination, whether in an eager wondering "Auf einer Wanderung" or a musing unmawkish "Verborgenheit".” Gramophone Magazine, October 2008

“There can be no better advocate of Hugo Wolf than Roman Trekel, now at the peak of his career as a Lieder interpreter, who presents this deeply satisfying recital of the best of the Mörike Lieder.
These inspired songs need, above all, the kind of intense expression and intimate, detailed treatment that Trekel brings them. Performed as convincingly as they are here, they offer a particular frisson of individual accent that no other composer in the genre, whatever their other merits, quite equals: words and music seem as though they were written at one and the same time Trekel achieves an ideal fusion of tonal security, sense of line and word-painting. In a comparatively long and complex Lied such as 'Im Frühling', he and the admirable Oliver Pohl traverse all the points of the expressive compass, and all the nuances of dynamics that belong to them. In that surpassingly sincere and beautiful love-song 'An die Geliebte' they build to the climax from 'Von Tiefe dann zu Tiefen' with a confidence that bespeaks long familiarity with the piece.
Even better is the heartache they bring to 'Peregrina II' and 'Lebe wohl', where Wolf seems to enter into all the poet's suffering at the hands of a beloved. They also find the inner spirituality of the religion-inspired settings, such as 'Auf ein altes Bild' and 'Denk' es o Seele', the latter so compelling for saying so much in such a short time. In a quite different vein, they rise marvellously to the frenzied melodrama of 'Der Feuerreiter', always a challenge to singer and pianist and one that's surely met here.
A truthful recording adds to the disc's merits.
Not so the notes, which omit any exposition of the songs and also English translations. Even so, this is a recital that ought to convert even Wolf heretics to the cause.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

"If you enjoy Lieder and/or the sound of a male singing voice, this extraordinary set belongs in your collection. It preserves the art of one of the greatest singers of this century, and is extremely well produced, with superb transfers, an intelligent booklet complete with texts and translations, and discs which are generously filled. This is, in fact, a model for the reissuing of important historical material, and it is one of Music & Arts's most significant achievements." Henry Fogel, in Fanfare