Wolf, H: Auf einer Wanderung (No. 15 from Mörike-Lieder) (In ein freundliches Städtchen)

This new disc on Bridge presents songs by some of the greatest masters of the art of setting poetry to music. With the exception of Purcell's songs, the repertoire heard here grows out of the 19th century German Romantic Lied tradition.

Soprano Georgine Resick and pianist Warren Jones have collaborated on several discs for Bridge in the past and are known for their fascinating thematic programming. This recital follows in that tradition, showing unusual contrasts and similarities between diverse repertoire.

Kathleen Ferrier was one of the greatest British singers of the 20th century. For ten years she enjoyed an unparallelled career, admired equally for the generous warmth and sincerity of her interpretations as for her uniquely splendid contralto voice. This reissue features twelve arias and songs that Ferrier recorded for Decca between 1946 and 1950. In addition there are eight treasurable items from a 1949 Norwegian Radio recital in Oslo, which include her only published recordings of Hugo Wolf.

Mark Obert-Thorn, producer and audio restoration engineer

This fourth CD in the first ever complete Hugo Wolf song series contains 12 premiere recordings. The performances were recorded live at the Oxford Lieder Festival in 2011 and are by two rising stars of the Lieder world.

This is the first disc in a series that will be the first ever complete edition of the songs of Hugo Wolf. These performances were recorded live at the Oxford Lieder Festival (in the Holywell Music Room) on 22nd October 2010.

Starting with Schubert’s great ballad Der Taucher, Michael Volle leads the way through a programme of lieder including works by Hugo Wolf and Richard Strauss. He has worked with many great conductors, including Mehta, Muti, Levine and Gergiev.

“Since her full blooming on the operatic stage, Kirchschlager’s mezzo has grown enormously - and her performing character with it. She still knows how to hold a recital audience in the palm of her hand, but now there’s a newly expansive energy firing all she sings […..] Kirchschlager’s dark mezzo smouldered with sensuality,” so wrote the Times after Angelika Kirchschlager and Roger Vignoles’ February 2010 Wigmore Hall performance of the same collection of Hugo Wolf and Richard Strauss songs.

Angelika Kirchschlager is regarded as one of the most distinguished mezzo-sopranos of her generation and in particular is recognised internationally for her interpretations of Richard Strauss. She gives regular solo recitals, balancing her operatic career with lieder performances. Eminent piano accompanist and leading authority on the song repertoire, Roger Vignoles, is her long-standing musical partner.

Now in this collection Kirchschlager and Vignoles collaborate to perform nine Strauss songs as well as Wolf’s lieder to texts by Eduard Mörike and Gottfried Keller. Wolf set 43 of Mörike’s poems to music during a period of intense creativity in which he developed a heady new musical language. Kirchschlager delights in the opportunity to convey this with glorious colouring of phrases which are fittingly matched by the piano. The recording provides encores of music from each composer, including Strauss’ triumphant ‘Nichts,’ a fitting end to a compelling programme.

Two of the world’s most seasoned Schubertians, both long associated with Wigmore Hall, come together for the next new release from Wigmore Hall Live.

Live from Wigmore Hall - 19 February 2008

This recording comprises 26 of the 53 lieder that Wolf wrote on the poems of Eduard Mörike, born just seven years after Schubert in 1804, but outliving the composer nearly five decades.

Reviewing the concert in Seen & Heard International stated that: “The partnership between Cooper and Holzmair is so close, it’s almost symbiotic”

“Rarely have I heard so sensitive, intelligent and gloriously musical a partnership. No-one could have asked for more attentive, detailed expressions nor more complete harmony of feeling between singer and pianist … I was transfixed by the sheer artistry.” (The Independent)

Wolfgang Holzmair is a native of Upper Austria, and the British pianist Imogen Cooper, whose training included a period in Vienna studying with Paul Badura-Skoda, Jörg Demus and Alfred Brendel.