Mahler: Rückert-Lieder (5 songs, complete)

“her ease and clarity of language are as impressive as her instinctive feel for the modes of expression voiced by such diverse composers as Dvorak, Ravel and Mahler...Kozena encapsulates and conveys the spectrum of moods with a wealth of understanding and apt vocal inflection...There is never any doubt...that Kozena has these songs in her heart and has the wisdom and finesse with which to convey their very essence.” Gramophone Magazine, July 2012

“Throughout the Ruckert-Lieder the diction is excellent, dramatic emphases are absolutely in place and there is, notably in 'Um Mitternacht', some superb legato singing...Dvorak's Biblical Songs are almost entirely excellent...Kozena projects the sincerity of these settings magnificently” BBC Music Magazine, October 2012 ****

“Kozena revels in [Dvorak's] inexhaustible stream of melody, while Simon Rattle’s Berliners relish his subtle orchestration...though Kozena’s French and German are not as idiomatic as her Czech, she is luminous in expressing the exoticism of Tristan Klingsor’s Shéhérazade poems, and Rückert’s celebration of the natural world.” Sunday Times, 23rd September 2012

“Singing in her native Czech, Kozená transmits a soulfulness that she rarely summons in other repertoire. It’s a question of being “inside the idiom”, and it feeds her performance of Dvorák’s Biblical Songs...The disc is worth buying for these 10 tracks alone, but Kozená also captures the exotic idiom of Ravel’s Shéhérazade” Financial Times, 27th October 2012 ****

“Dvorak’s rarely recorded “Biblical Songs” are impassioned prayers and voluptuous Psalm settings that show off Ms. Kozena’s burnished mezzo. The orchestra sounds splendid in Ravel’s “Shéhérazade”; Mahler’s “Rückert Lieder” call forth a more austere and concentrated mode of expression.” New York Times, 23rd November 2012

“[Graham's] contribution is unquestionably the highlight. She brings great depth of feeling to Liebst du um Schönheit (If you love for beauty) and Um Mitternacht (At Midnight). Indeed, I can’t think of a finer contemporary female interpreter of these songs on disc. Please, someone, record her in the other two cycles.” Sunday Times, 19th September 2010 ***

“'Um mitternacht' works best, with gleaming voice complemented by superb San Francisco clarinets and trumpets - glorious recorded perspectives, too, as ever from this source.” BBC Music Magazine, November 2010 **/***

“From the opening bars of the Wayfarer songs, Hampson demonstrates his mettle as a gifted storyteller, his warm, legato tones awash with dramatic colour. Susan Graham's mezzo brings similar tonal and dramatic light and shade to the Rückert-Lieder. The orchestra has this music just as sussed.” Classic FM Magazine, November 2010 *****

“It is unusual to hear a baritone sing "Urlicht" or indeed "Wo die schönen Trompeten blasen", but that Housman-like tale is here most sympathetically unfolded...[Hampson's] is a performance of terrific presence and power.” Gramophone Magazine, November 2010

“Christian Gerhaher has always seemed an exceptionally profound and understanding singer and he proves that with this remarkable exploration of Mahler's songs...never over-emoting but keeping a beautiful, even line afloat often on the tiniest wisps of sound.” The Observer, 13th December 2009

“Gerhaher is today’s Lieder interpreter par excellence. The German baritone’s range of colour, velvet timbre and natural intelligence recall a golden age of artistry.” Financial Times, 12th December 2009 ****

“Christian Gerhaher has always seemed an exceptionally profound and understanding singer and he proves that with this remarkable exploration of Mahler's songs...never over-emoting but keeping a beautiful, even line afloat…” The Guardian, 13th December 2009

“With every disc he makes, the German baritone Christian Gerhaher emerges more and more clearly as the true heir to the Lieder-singing legacy of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau...Every song is explored with a perfect mixture of musical tact and illumination” The Guardian, 14th January 2010 *****

“[Gerhaher's] finest achievement to date — indeed, one of the greatest programmes of this composer’s lieder ever committed to disc...Gerold Huber is an equal partner, painting the piano parts in a rich palette of instrumental colours. For once, one hardly misses Mahler’s orchestrations. Utterly memorable.” Sunday Times, 31st January 2010 *****

“…outstandingly imaginative piano playing of Gerold Huber. He counterpoints voice and piano with the subtext within the settings, often with revelatory results. Both Gerhaher and Huber pace the Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen perfectly, balancing the songs' emotional lights and deep shadows, their sense of wonder and of yearning. A glinting and newly honed knife-blade pierces the soul in the third song, colouring it with an Expressionist angst.” BBC Music Magazine, March 2010 *****

“Gerhaher and Huber immerse you so successfully in their interior world that you barely register the orchestra’s absence...Huber achieves pianistic miracles of colour and timing, and to call this a mature partnership barely begins to address the depth of their mutual understanding...might I humbly suggest that this could be the finest Mahler you’ll hear all year? Absolutely essential.” Andrew McGregor, bbc.co.uk, 25th March 2010

“The sheer spiritual power, the sheer heartfelt sincerity and warmth of feeling in her every utterance is overwhelmingly moving” The Telegraph

“Here, she is heard in Mahler's Five Ruckert Lieder, the voice unfailingly beautiful, the words evocative, and in the valedictory Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen (I am lost to the world), serenely resigned and sadly prophetic. A glowing memento of a glorious artist” Sunday Times

“This mezzo-soprano had a profound musical bond with Mahler, for example, and this is her only extant recording of the Ruckert Lieder. It's a marvel … Roger Vignoles deserves praise, too, for his playing matches Hunt Lieberson in its emotional concentration and directness … "Unbewegte laue Luft" ends the recital on an ecstatic note that surely sent the audience out on a cloud. Indispensable” Gramophone Magazine

“This recital presents a remarkable singer still at the height of her powers some eight years before her untimely death … All in all, this is a cherishable memento of a very special artist” International Record Review

“It is difficult to get through this recital without a lump in your throat … Her performance of Mahler's Ruckert Lieder, one of the finest on disc, avoids the usual morbidity and contains flashes of divine revelation ... Essential listening” The Guardian

“The unique warmth of tone is sounded in the first notes even of the lighter Mahler songs. But there's also a spiritual grace in her approach. Key tracks such as Mahler's 'Ich bin de Welt abhanden gekommen'; the spiritual 'Deep river'; her fervent second encore, Brahms's 'Unbewegte laue Luft' and Handel's 'As rosy steps'... place Hunt Lieberson alongside the best of Kathleen Ferrier and Dame Janet Baker, whose Mahler is matched for personality here.” BBC Music Magazine, April 2007 *****

“Here is a mezzo who more than any of her generation bade fair to rival Janet Baker in the warmth, beauty and intensity of her singing” Penguin Guide, 2010 ***

“This disc shows Stephan Genz entering his fourth decade with all the light suppleness and ardour of his youthful recordings, but now with darker colours and firmer bass ballast folding into his baritone. His intuitive musical partnership with Roger Vignoles is as sentient and perceptive as ever; and together they uncover the dark, sensual mysteries of the late-Romantic response to the natural world” BBC Music Magazine

“Stephan Genz's voice and style place him above his many noted contemporaries. His mellifluous baritone recalls that of a young Thomas Hampson, but his understanding of the Lieder genre is even more penetrating, as this Mahler recital reveals. Each song is shaped as a whole yet with subtleties of phrase and word-painting that seem inevitable in every respect, especially as the chosen tempi always seem the right ones.
Performing and listening to these songs with piano is inevitably a more intimate experience than when they are heard in their orchestral garb.
The pair's rapport is evident throughout. Memorable are the the poise and stillness of 'Ich atmet' einen Linden duft' from the Rückert-Lieder, the eloquent sadness of 'Nicht Wiedersehen' and the restrained sorrow of the whole of Kindertotenlieder.
Not a hint of sentimentality, such a danger in Mahler, spoils the experience of the composer's deeply felt emotions.
Hyperion's recording, beautifully balanced, catches the true quality of Genz's voice and the refinement of Vignoles's playing. This disc is an experience not to be missed by any lover of Mahler and/or of Lieder.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“The songs of the Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen ('Songs of a Wayfarer') are quoted from Mahler's First Symphony and the fresh, springtime atmosphere is shared by both works. The orchestration has great textural clarity and lightness of touch. The Kindertotenlieder, more chromatically expressive than the earlier work, tap into a darker, more complex vein in Mahler's spiritual and emotional make-up. The Rückert-Lieder aren't a song cycle as such but gather in their romantic awareness and response to the beauties of the poetry a unity and shape that binds them. Baker and Barbirolli reach a transcendental awareness of Mahler's inner musings. Barbirolli draws from the Hallé playing of delicacy and precision, establishing a clear case for having this CD in your collection.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“Karajan's classic Sixth confirmed his belated arrival as a major Mahler interpreter. Only Bernstein, in his more emotive, less consciously beautifying way, left recorded performances of comparable strength and conviction. Karajan's understanding of Mahler's sound world – its links forward to Berg, Schoenberg and Webern as opposed to retrospective links with Wagner – is very acute. Combining this with a notable long-term control of rhythm, Karajan is sustains not only the composer's lucidly stated tragic case but also Mahler's exploration of materials drawn from different sound worlds and even, in the Scherzo, from different areas of the inherited musical tradition. This Scherzo is a masterly achievement by composer, conductor, and orchestra alike. Also, the engineers have tidied up the very end of the symphony, where the bass tuba's entry over drum and ff pizzicato basses no longer betrays quite so obviously its origin as part of a separate take.
The Rückert Lieder are memorably sung by Christa Ludwig who is eloquently supported by the Berlin wind players who are recorded with gratifying immediacy.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010