Strauss, R: Ich liebe dich Op. 37 No. 2

“The disc that alerted international audiences to Kaufmann’s gifts as both a superb singer and outstanding interpreter of the German art-song repertoire.” Sunday Times, 9th August 2009

“Stupendous is the only word to describe it. This is sexy, passionate singing, delivered with thrilling ease.” The Guardian, 11th August 2006 *****

“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

“For all the power and musical intelligence she brings to Wagner's Wesendonck Lieder and Wolf's Mignon songs, the second half signals a complete change of mood in the Britten and John Carter's spiritual- based Cantata. This is singing of rare charm and versatility, at both ends of a vast emotional spectrum.” Sunday Telegraph, 22nd June 2008

“Already in town for jury duty on the Wigmore Hall International Song Competition, [Christine Brewer] gave on Saturday a recital of radiant passion and power … generous sound, long phrases effortlessly controlled, subtle gradations of tone … The music’s emotional volatility was admirably caught. Clamour capsized into sorrow; voice and piano kept questioning and shading each other. Vignoles’s subtle gifts proved vital here … In the four Britten-Auden cabaret songs Brewer was at her unbuttoned best. After cabaret came spirituals, packaged by the American John Carter into a baroque-tinged cantata. Vignoles’s elaborate fingerwork never interfered with Brewer’s exultant glow.” The Times Concert Review

“Recorded at the opening concert of the current Wigmore Hall season, this is very much a recital of two halves. The first finds the American soprano’s glorious, soaring voice in Isolde mode: it is the ideal instrument for Wagner’s Wesendonck-Lieder, and Brewer is in rapturous form here, making as much of the words as she does of Wagner’s music. It is rare, and wonderful, to hear this kind of voice in Wolf’s dramatic setting of Mignon’s Nur wer die Sehnsucht kennt, but Brewer’s tone is perhaps too fruity in his other three songs for the waiflike heroine of Goethe’s Wilhelm Meister. In the second half, she lets her hair down in Britten’s Cabaret songs, and sings the negro spirituals of John Carter’s Cantata with heartrending empathy and simplicity.” Sunday Times, 1st June 2008 ***

“American soprano Christine Brewer is blessed with both a huge and beautiful voice, and the intelligence to make good use of it. …a thoroughly enjoyable recital.” BBC Music Magazine, June 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

“A luscious Straussfest, though Caballé's voice suits Salome better than the high-ranging songs. In the Boito extract, slow but thunderously awesome, Ghiaurov's sardonic demon rails at the majestic chorus.” BBC Music Magazine, May 2006 ****

“Pianist and presiding spirit Roger Vignoles takes us on a select chronological jaunt, making sure Brewer boldly goes to the heart of the bigger numbers where lesser voices would fear to tread. Her glorious instrument, fine-tuned from top to bottom, effortlessly negotiates some of Strauss's more outlandish intervals.” BBC Music Magazine, June 2005 ****

“There seems to be no challenge that Christine Brewer and Roger Vignoles can’t meet in these opulent songs. Brewer’s soaring voice offers a fabulous range of colour and dynamics, and Vignoles matches her with a truly orchestral palette at the keyboard” Classic FM Magazine

“Christine Brewer … combines opulent, blazing tone, fearless top notes and surprising agility” Daily Telegraph

“This is the first volume in Hyperion's Richard Strauss edition, something to be devoutly hoped for: he was a great Lieder composer but only a small fraction of his 200-plus songs are at all well known. Admittedly, his taste in poetry wasn't always as elevated as that of his fellow composers, yet his music can transform rather ordinary verses. And the major poets do get a look-in.
This disc includes two Heine settings, one of which, 'Frühlingsfeier', came a year after Salome and echoes the operatic score. This is where Christine Brewer, whose repertory includes the title-roles in Ariadne auf Naxos and Die ägyptischeHelena, might be expected to be most comfortable: her big, gleaming soprano sweeps through impressively. If at first her voice seems less than ideally flexible as a Lieder instrument, especially in the earlier songs, it would be ungrateful not to marvel at what she does ultimately bring to these performances.
Opening with 'Zueignung', which Strauss never intended to be relegated to encore status, Brewer sounds glorious if a little staid. But she quickly lightens up, catching the palpitations of 'Wie sollten wir geheim sie halten' and the gem-like intimacy of 'Leises Lied'. She positively blazes in the sunlight-evoking 'In der Campagna', where Vignoles's piano captures the splash of a Straussian orchestra. Both artists bring something fresh to the chestnuts 'Allerseelen' and 'Wiegenlied', in which Brewer floats a beautiful line over the rippling accompaniment. Having the high tessitura demanded in the rarely heard Gesänge des Orients, she clinches any remaining argument magnificently.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“At all times Brewer and Vignoles work together hand in glove … This is a properly equal partnership that bodes very well indeed for this admirable project. Brewer and Vignoles set high standards for anyone who would record Strauss now and for future collaborations on Hyperion too!” International Record Review

“Christine Brewer in magisterial voice … a major project, beautifully performed and presented” The Independent

“Could there be a more enticing title stamped across a CD than Strauss: The Complete Songs – 1? Richard Strauss the man may be widely resistible; but it would take someone extraordinarily hard-hearted not to take any delight in his luxuriant imagination and succulent harmonies … each planned CD in the series will be shaped around the talents of different singers, and Brewer’s disc marks a tremendous start” The Times