Strauss, R: Die Zeitlose, Op. 10 No. 7

“Joan Rodgers's singing...has bags of personality and that's the main thing...Tone-poem and elegy both start well, but have their problematic interpretative moments...The central sweep, though, is clear and impressive, the Strasbourg strings remarkably fine.” BBC Music Magazine, June 2011 ***

“Don Juan has been played and recorded so often that it might seem impossibile to conjure the music into sounding as fresh as the day it was written. Yet it happens here, with a conductor-and-orchestra team that delivers sweeping panache, needlepoint precision, and vividly characterised solo playing (superb horns!). In the brooding, autumnal Metamorphosen, the quality of the Strasbourg string-playing is if anything higher.” Classic FM Magazine, July 2011 *****

“The account of Don Juan cannot be faulted: ideally paced, with a bold contribution from the horns and strings which are virile and rich. The tension in Metamorphosen, although not low, is a little inconsistent but reaches an impressively passionate climax with good, full-bodied recording. The conductor also provides highly sympathetic accompaniments for his soloist, Joan Rodgers.” Gramophone Magazine, June 2011

“This lusciously rewarding programme opens with an admirably ardent, appropriately cocksure but always musically disciplined Don Juan, played with panache by the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg...[Metamorphosen] is beautifully played, finely shaped and exquisitely internally balanced.” Sunday Times, 11th September 2011

“Lott was still at her peak when these recordings were made in 2002, and has a background of great affinity with the Strauss muse...Her voice and phrasing are still at their glorious finest, and so is her partnership with Johnson. The result is a magical recital, naturally recorded.” Gramophone Magazine, October 2012

“With Johnson's charmingly modest and unfailing attendance, this is a recital peppered with exquisite moments of Olympian power and heroic breath control from Lott. These qualities give the lie to the fact that her remarkable voice is into its sixth decade! It is almost ideal for Strauss here: warmly lyrical, clear, lithe and sensuously intoned, majestic in its dynamic and emotional colourings.” MusicWeb International, August 2012

“Soft, inward rapture for 'Ständchen' is Behle's excellent starting point...An easy confidentiality never allows over-inflection here...Whether or not the studio tells the truth, Behle is also able to bring a heroic sheen to the refulgent climaxes...which makes comparison with Jonas Kaufmann not inappropriate; but in any case this is a tenor with a candid, easy approach all his own.” BBC Music Magazine, July 2012 ****

“This thrilling Strauss album makes me want to hear this young German tenor in everything he sings. His light lyric timbre is reminiscent, in its ascents to the stratosphere, of earlier German-speaking tenors (Tauber and Dermota spring to mind). He crowns Cäcilie with a stunning top B...breathtaking work from both singer and pianist.” Sunday Times, 6th May 2012

“The music of Richard Strauss suited Popp as if she were wearing a tailor-made gown. In that composer's three songs of Ophelia, the soprano places that hapless heroine vividly before us. Gage's accompaniment deftly complements his partner's giddiness...Here, then, is a memorable reminder that we'll never stop missing Lucia Popp.” International Record Review, September 2010

“Andrew Kennedy is an eager, bright-eyed lover: the bloom and the tenderness of the middle range of his voice, in particular, knows just how to bring a luxuriant Straussian intimacy to a song such as 'Seitdem dein Aug' in meines Schaute.” BBC Music Magazine, May 2008 ***

“Hyperion is an old hand at programming attractively playable discs that make up complete Lied editions. Kennedy's selection has the earlier material, with the Opp 17 and 32 groups given complete. Strauss's choice of poets at this stage in his Lied career may not have been as sophisticated as it became but he never chose a text that didn't inspire a clear musical portrait. Especially well pointed are two Des Knaben Wunderhorn songs ('Himmelsboten' and the droll love-onthe- cheap story of 'Für fünfzehn Pfennige') and the dark, serious 'Sehnsucht'. The better-known 'Ständchen' and what Roger Vignoles's notes call the 'ebullient barnstormer' 'Heimliche Aufforderung' are placed cunningly within the recital order.
Vignoles's playing continues to achieve a maximum of freshness and invention and a chameleon- like closeness to his singer's tone and line. Kennedy's voice is young, sweet, fluent and has what some commentators call 'sap'. Greater naturalness (and especially inwardness) will come in his live and later performances of this repertoire. In the meantime, a lot of work and study has gone into this disc and the readings attain a consistently high standard of beautiful music-making.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“Vignoles's playing continues to achieve a maximum of freshness and invention… Kennedy's voice is young, sweet, fluent and has what some commentators call "sap". A lot of work and study has gone into this disc and the readings attain a consistently high standard of beautiful music-making.” Gramophone Magazine, July 2008

“As bold and committed in Lieder as she was in opera, the great soprano is caught here in the last part of her career, specialising in song. Thrilling.” BBC Music Magazine, March 2008 *****

“Fassbender is an understanding, sympathetic and, above all, straightforward guide to this music. The recording… deserves hearing for both its interesting juxtaposition of repertoire and the unaffected sincerity of the performances…” Gramophone Magazine, April 2008