Liszt: Freudvoll und leidvoll, S.280

This second volume of Hyperion’s newest Lieder series features the great dramatic and musical gifts of mezzo-soprano Angelika Kirchschlager. Internationally renowned on the opera stage, the concert hall and the recording studio, Kirchschlager is an ideal performer of these most varied, complex and emotionally charged songs. She is accompanied by the multi-Gramophone Award-winning Julius Drake, who curates the series.

The songs recorded here encompass thirty years of Liszt’s life, with texts in German, French and Italian, and contain many examples of the hidden beauties of this undervalued and little-known strand of the composer’s works.

Detailed and informative notes by Susan Youens and a beautifully intimate recorded sound complete a volume which will be indispensable to any lovers of Lieder.

For her first solo CD, Marlis Petersen and her partner Jendrik Springer have devised this programme of 19 lieder, from nearly two centuries of music, centreing on the concept of the 'Eternal Feminine'.

"For this CD we made a selection of songs sung by several female characters from Goethe’s dramas (Stella, Klärchen, Gretchen, Mignon, Philine, Suleika and Helena). Among them are a number of poems which have been set to music countless times in the past two centuries, but are today often known only in a standard setting: if one speaks of 'Gretchen am Spinnrade' or Klärchen’s 'Freudvoll and leidvoll' (to take just two examples), then each of us thinks immediately of the compositions by Franz Schubert and Ludwig van Beethoven respectively. These poems too are on our CD, but set by Richard Wagner and Franz Liszt! By choosing composers who are not usually associated with the lied genre (Ernst Krenek, Charles Ives) or in certain cases probably completely unknown to some listeners (Nikolay Medtner, the pianist Wilhelm Kempff), we wanted to encourage a fresh approach to the poems, one not cluttered by listening traditions. However, to make the selection of songs as varied and balanced as possible, we have also included a few well-known settings like Schubert’s 'Was bedeutet die Bewegung' or Robert Schumann’s 'So laßt mich scheinen'. Furthermore, Manfred Trojahn has contributed a new setting of words portraying Helen of Troy, thus bringing our survey right up to date. Between the individual groups and at the end we have placed a setting of Goethe’s second ‘Wanderer’s Night Song’, 'Über allen Gipfeln ist Ruh'. This is intended to serve as a restingpoint, an emotional ‘reset’; at the same time, it gave us the possibility of presenting a single poem in the interpretation of six different composers: the naive idyll of Hans Sommer and the threatening, doom-laden atmosphere of Nikolay Medtner’s setting are worlds away from each other. It was a thrill and a delight for us to explore this virtually inexhaustible musical treasure-trove in order to come up with an interesting selection of songs that amply repay discovery. We hope you will be as fascinated by this rich diversity as we were!" Marlis Petersen/Jendrik Springer

After her sumptuous album of Strauss songs with orchestra, soprano Diana Damrau marks the bicentenary of Liszt’s birth with an album of his most celebrated songs in German, French and Italian, accompanied by pianist Helmut Deutsch.

Janina Baechle has been a member of the Vienna State Opera since 2004. She has performed Mahler’s Symphony No.2 and The Song of the Earth with the Vienna Philharmonic and has given many recitals.

In this 200th anniversary year of Liszt, Carus has released a recording of seldom performed songs. The 20 songs in this collection reflect Liszt’s interest in German Romanticism and are based on poetry by various German poets of the 17th and 18th centuries. Mammel is in great demand as a lieder singer.