Schubert: Willkommen und Abschied, D767 (Mi batte ‘l cor!, Felice arrivo e congedo)

“It comprises 19 songs, all stylishly and beautifully sung by the tenor Werner Güra. The six Goethe settings include such familiar contrasts as Heidenröslein and Ganymed, while Willkommen und Abschied itself, more of a rarity, is heroically sung. The strength of Güra’s tone without any loss of quality has always been his strong point.” Sunday Telegraph, 29th January 2012

“His fresh lyric tenor combines well with Berner’s bright yet warm-toned fortepiano — he twinkles at Goethe’s ironic description of a water nymph as “eine feuchtes Weib”, literally a “damp woman” — while Berner brings drama to the piano parts of Auf der Bruck, Willkommen und Abschied and the haunting, yearning Herbst.” Sunday Times, 12th February 2012

“Berner, playing an 1872 Rönisch fortepiano, shows keen attention to every detail. Güra, outstanding in his unfussy, intense delivery, is a formidable, rousing guide.” The Observer, 26th February 2012

“Gura's strong, unaffected tenor voice is a pleasure to listen to, and Berner, who has an impressive keyboard freedom grounded in reliable technical skill, is a responsive accompanist: they perform as one, although too often their approach to a song somehow misses an essential quality of that particular piece of music.” International Record Review, March 2012 ****

“Gura and his fortepianist, Christoph Berner, have mapped out a trajectory of the Romantic view of human emotional life...At each stage, both musicians show perfect sympathy with Schubert's own engagement, ideal empathy with each other, and a shrewd sensitivity to musical and expressive scale.” BBC Music Magazine, May 2012 *****

“Gura is never dull. 'Der Wanderer' is intensely 'lived', the opening bleak and desiccated...One of the most eloquent performances of all is the last song, 'Nachtstuck'...Here, singer and pianist show an acute sensitivity to harmonic colour that characterises this whole rewarding recital.” Gramophone Magazine, May 2012

“Goerne… and Schneider offer grave and solemn performances of Goethe's Mignon and Harper songs, before ending on a higher note, celebrating the eternal joy of love in 'Willkommen and Abschied'.” BBC Music Magazine, February 2009 ****

“Battered by Bryn Terfel dramatics, the ears cried out for a pure dose of lieder from a master of the craft. Matthias Goerne… seems to own a different shade of baritonal colour for every syllable Schubert wrote. The voice is sweet and serene, even at fff, and the shifts that Goerne applies to the changing of seasons and the fickleness of love are done with enviable delicacy. More reticent than Fischer-Dieskau or Thomas Quasthoff to bend a line for expressive emphasis, when Goerne takes a liberty the effect is breath stopping… T his is not an album to gorge at one go. Take it two songs a night before bedtime, and it might see you through to the end of recession.” Norman Lebrecht, Evening Standard CD of the Week

“Goerne used to record for Decca, but it apparently had no interest in his 12-volume Schubert compendium, so the less ruthlessly commercial Harmonia Mundi comes to the rescue, for which the France-based company deserves the highest praise. From a vocal point of view, few male singers, even Fischer-Dieskau, command such a rich palette of colours as Goerne does here…he goes where Dieskau never ventured: he includes two of Mignon's songs, Heiss' mich nicht reden and Nur wer die Sehnsucht kennt, as well as the Harper trilogy… In the middle Harper song, Mayrhofer's Nachtstück and Nähe des Geliebten (Nearness of the Beloved), Goerne approaches the sublime and captures perfectly the wry wit of Goethe's sly dig at water-nymphery, Der Fischer, in which the surprise encounter of an angler with a "moist woman" is wryly underlined by Schubert. Luxury support from Deutsch and Schneider sets the seal on an outstanding issue.” Sunday Times Classical CD of the Week

“This promises to be a landmark series, up there with Hans Hotter and Fischer-Dieskau.” The Observer

“Here elegy, fatalism and death-longing predominate and in such repertoire Goerne's mellow, darkly rounded timbre, expressive diction and care – rare in Lieder singers today – for a true, 'bound' line are well nigh ideal. Even at the most anguished fortissimo, his tone never grows harsh or hectoring. Perfectionism like Goerne's has inevitably provoked charges of over-calculation.
Some might protest at the ultra-slow tempo for Du bist die Ruh. Yet Goerne's beauty of tone and phrasing (founded on seemingly superhuman reserves of breath), and a rapt intensity that rises to spiritual radiance in the final verse are mesmerising. At a more conventional tempo, he sings An die Musik as a simple, sincere confession of faith, with affectionate touches of rubato (and how eloquently Helmut Deutsch's left hand duets with the voice). Elsewhere Goerne's unsentimental tenderness can illuminate little-known songs that seem ordinary on the printed page – Abschied von der Harfe, say, or the quasi-operatic lament Der Sänger amFelsen. He even appropriates, successfully, two of Mignon's songs, giving one of the most desolate and – in the central section – disturbed performances of Nur wer die Sehnsucht kennt you will hear.
True to form, Goerne makes an uncommonly melancholy serenader in An die Laute and DesMädchens Liebeslauschen, which never smiles. Yet he can lighten up, as in the story-telling of DerFischer and Wie Ulfru fischt. Like Deutsch on the first disc, Eric Schneider fully matches Goerne in acumen and command of colour, not least in a performance of Nachtstück of mingled grandeur, mystery and compassionate gentleness.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“Goerne's virtuoso vocal sculpting draws you into the inner landscape of each song, his warm, expressive baritone shaping detail often understated by lesser artists. This promises to be a landmark series, up there with Hans Hotter and Fischer-Dieskau.” The Guardian, 12th October 2008

“Bostridge reveals his expanding mastery in the widest variety of expression, with the subtlest range of tone, and with a deliberate hardening of the characteristically sweet voice in some of the more dramatic songs...In all this Drake is the perfect partner, ranging wide in his tonal palette too” Penguin Guide, 2010 edition ****

“There are unknown treasures here. Anyone who hasn't invested in this vast enterprise might well begin with this volume” Classic CD

“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 ***