Schubert: Memnon, D541 (Mayrhofer)

“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

'The readings, with Johnson's piano at its probing best, are constantly enlightening and carry the absorbed listener into a rarefied world of word and music. The disc lasts an incredible 80 minutes, but the time flies by in such perceptive company' (Gramophone)

“The superbly played orchestrations range from Brahms to Britten...And both singers are on top form here.” BBC Music Magazine, July 2013 ****

“The interpretation of Schubert's Lieder comes no better than this..." Gramophone

“The interpretation of Schubert's Lieder comes no better than this, a recital taken from three different broadcast sources, catching Dame Janet at the absolute peak of her powers. Most of the songs are by poets who moved the composer to his most noble inspiration. As several Schubert specialists have commented, for each he reserved a particular style, in response to their very different manner, and Baker catches the precise meaning of each.
Of the Schiller settings, the operatic expression of Amalia and the dreamy rapture of the praise of Laura (here the singer achieves one miraculous pianissimo effect) are perfectly caught. Best of all is that wonderful song, Die Götter Griechenlands, where longing is so movingly expressed. All seven Mayrhofer settings find Baker truly at one with the poet's high-minded self-communing on the meaning of life, and with his underlying fatalism.
Most notable are the calm assurance and serenity she brings to Der Sieg, the resigned isolation found in Abendstern, and the holy fire of Auflösung, the last two masterpieces that the singer did so much to make popular.
As Gerald Moore once pointed out, Baker liked the stimulus of the different ideas she received from different pianists. Here Isepp, Parsons and the young Graham Johnson provide just that, completing pleasure in a recital that goes to the heart of the chosen material: as ever one realises that Baker was, above all, a singer of conviction. The absence of any texts or translations is the only blot on a superb issue.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010