Schubert: Meeres Stille, D216, Op. 3 No. 2 (Goethe)

“A delightful recital … Neven’s melodies are every bit as persuasive as his lieder … the recording team does the project proud.” Classical Music, 17th November 2012

“Rarely do you hear, even in the rarefied world of French melodie and German Lieder, a baritone who sings with such subtlety in shading of dynamic and tone as the Dutch baritone Henk Neven...and this latest disc extends my admiration even further in totally exquisite singing...Altogether a most memorable song record.” Gramophone Magazine, February 2013

“This may be the most perfect of discs, owing to Price's magic partnership with Graham Johnson. Schubert's most popular songs are given a new lease of life.” BBC Music Magazine, October 2011 *****

“At first, I found Price’s characterisation a little detached and impersonal, perhaps because of the very beauty of her voice, but her performances grew on me. Her exemplary phrasing, breath control and seamless musical line are heard to fine effect in Death and the Maiden and Wanderers Nachtlied, and in her broadening out of the glorious “all-liebender Vater” in Ganymede.” Sunday Times, 5th June 2011 ***

“...it's a revelation. The tension between voice and accompanist is...never less than creative. That's largely thanks to Prégardien 's matchless enunciation, always subtly nuanced inflection, and [Hoppstock's] ability to sustain a legato line through his nicely variegated and perfectly balanced plucking.” BBC Music Magazine, June 2010 ****

“In volume four of Goerne’s Schubert edition, the song selection is still skewed towards the introspective and forlorn. Those moods are perfect for Goerne’s dark baritone...and, always, the elegantly responsive piano of Ingo Metzmacher, better known as a conductor. The pair seem very simpatico.” The Times, 28th November 2009 ****

“Although there are moments when the angst within Schubert's responses to Mayrhofer and the vanished gods could be more biting, Goerne has the measure of the noble declamation of these unique songs. When it comes to the Goethe settings, Goerne excels at recreating the uncanny metaphysical stillness of 'Meeresstille', and of the D224 'Wandrers Nachtlied'. And his final Mayrhofer 'Abschied', taken as slowly as is humanly possible, becomes a valediction of wide spaces and eloquent silences.” BBC Music Magazine, January 2010 ****

“This is a simply unmissable recital, and for two prime reasons - the grave beauty of its programme and the corresponding beauty of the singer's voice. These songs of yearning, essentially spiritual, are very personal, and the imagination never shuts down. The pianist, Ingo Metzmacher, is fully responsive to this, and the recorded sound, of both voice and piano, is warm and vivid.” Gramophone Magazine, February 2010

“The two selections from Heliopolis telescope intimate, personal dramas and larger public spectacle to bewitching effect, Goerne’s lightly burnished baritone liquescently surging and seething against the pointed accompaniment of Ingo Metzmacher...Throughout, Goerne and Metzmacher suffuse these songs with a dark, yearning poetry to discreetly powerful and wholly persuasive effect.” Michael Quinn, bbc.co.uk, 18th December 2009

“Terfel's gift […] is a generous, individual voice, a natural feeling for German and an inborn ability to go to the heart.” Gramophone Magazine

“one of his first recordings to confirm his exceptional gift of projecting his magnetic personality with keen intensity...[he] is daring in confronting you face to face, very much as the young Fischer-Dieskau did, using the widest range of dynamics and tone.” Penguin Guide, 2010 edition ***

“Fischer-Dieskau is on top of his form...the spectrum of emotion takes on a new glow as each song begins...A treasurable disc” Penguin Guide, 2010 edition ***