Schubert: Fahrt zum Hades, D526 (Mayrhofer)

“A delightful recital … Neven’s melodies are every bit as persuasive as his lieder … the recording team does the project proud.” Classical Music, 17th November 2012

“Rarely do you hear, even in the rarefied world of French melodie and German Lieder, a baritone who sings with such subtlety in shading of dynamic and tone as the Dutch baritone Henk Neven...and this latest disc extends my admiration even further in totally exquisite singing...Altogether a most memorable song record.” Gramophone Magazine, February 2013

“Critics have sung Mr. Goerne's praises over and over, and one can hardly add anything at this point: The voice is one of the most beautiful - most lush, most creamy - that any of us has ever heard. His singing is almost impossibly smooth. The first time you hear it, you can scarcely believe it. Even the 10th time, you have to wonder… An impressive recital. Matthias Goerne: a first-class and unforgettable lieder singer.” The New York Sun

“In the sombre and elegiac songs that dominate his programme, Goerne is in his element, singing with his distinctive dark, rounded beauty and almost tortured intensity of thought and feeling. More than almost any other Lieder singer today, he combines expressive diction with an unblemished legato... In their mingled majesty and aching tenderness, Goerne's performances of two great Mayrhofer settings...are as moving as any performances I can remember. With his deep mahogany tones and innate seriousness of manner (on the concert platform he habitually wears a haunted air), Goerne is less convincing when a certain lightness of touch is needed. While not many of his chosen songs require him to smile, one that surely does is the wistful barcarolle Des Fischers Liebesglück, whose fisherman in question sounds thoroughly depressed. It is the same in Der Jüngling am Bache, where Goerne's slow, doleful performance suggests hopeless resignation rather than the tremulous expectancy implied by poem and music.” The Telegraph, 28th April 2008

“Goerne's renowned breath control … creates the hushed legato which is his hallmarl. This comes into its own in the Mayrhofer and Leitner settings, creating the mesmeric lilt of water and of light.” BBC Music Magazine, May 2008 ****

“His voice has a melting allure that draws you in completely to the sentiments of the song, and the disarming beauty of Schubert's music. These performances glow in various lights, rounding off a truly excellent first volume of an ongoing Schubert series.” The Scotsman

“Following Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau nearly 40 years on, Goerne is in his element, singing with his distinctive dark, rounded beauty and almost tortured intensity of thought and feeling. More than almost any other Lieder singer today, he combines expressive diction with an unblemished legato, "bowing" Schubert's long lines like a master cellist (shades here of the great Hans Hotter). In their mingled majesty and aching tenderness, Goerne's performances of two great Mayrhofer settings, Memon and Lied eines Schiffers an die Dioskuren, are as moving as any performances I can remember.” The Telegraph, 26 April 2008 Classical CD of the Week

“Matthias Goerne is fast becoming the Fischer-Dieskau of his generation, the standard-setting singer of the central lieder repertoire.” International Record Review

“'Do you know of any happy music?' Schubert once asked a friend. 'I don't.' Those words could stand as an epigraph to Matthias Goerne's opening salvo in a projected 11- or 12-disc survey of Schubert Lieder. Evanescence, elegy and yearning for a transcendent otherness are the keynotes of a programme that encompasses the Attic majesty and terribilità of 'Memnon' and 'Gruppe aus dem Tartarus', the disillusioned fatalism of 'Der Pilgrim' and the philosophical grandeur of 'Grenzen der Menschenheit'. In these songs Goerne, with his distinctive dark, velvet timbre, is in his element. An intense, almost tortured concentration of thought and feeling has always been his hallmark, as has an unblemished legato. The way he bows Schubert's long lines like a cellist is reminiscent of the great Hans Hotter.
Goerne's rich bass resonances are heard to advantage in a performance of 'Grenzen der Menschenheit' that embraces aching tenderness as well as deep, rolling gravitas. 'Memnon' – a typical Mayrhofer allegory of the artist as tragic outsider – is equally spellbinding, illuminated by telling details like the lingering portamento on 'liebend' – 'lovingly' – as dawn's rays break through the mists. And when have the hazardous leaps of another allegorical Mayrhofer song, 'Freiwilliges Versinken been negotiated with such smoothness and hypnotic eloquence.
Where doubts creep in is in the handful of songs where, pace Schubert's own words, a certain lightness of tone and spirit is implied, but Goerne's involvement is so palpable and his style so scrupulous. For two-thirds and more of this recital the interpretative rewards are uncommonly rich, with the baritone well complemented by Elisabeth Leonskaja's deep-toned (if on occasion over-pedalled), often orchestrally conceived accompaniments.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

'A delightful collection of songs inspired by water' (The Guardian)

“The American Barry McDaniel inevitably sang in the shadow of Fischer-Dieskau; but this double CD reveals his deeply thoughtful baritone, in superbly accompanied Lieder and melodie.” BBC Music Magazine, June 2012 ****

“This is part of Naxos's Schubert-Lied Edition, scheduled for completion in 2005. It's the brainchild of pianists Ulrich Eisenlohr and Stefan Laux. "Cornelius Hauptmann has been before the public for over 20 years. I first heard him in Bernstein's recordings of the Mozart Requiem and C-minor Mass. He has a smooth, attractive voice, and he sings with good diction and nice legato.” American Record Guide, Septmber/October 2000