Brahms: 8 Zigeunerlieder

‘What strikes me, in performing this programme, is of course its intrinsic musical (and not merely ethnomusicological) value and its richness; but also its expression of a folk imagination whose themes are far removed from the preoccupations of the loquacious poetasters who inhabited the Romantic salons. The great majority of the poems set to music here - which are often anonymous, since they are directly derived from oral tradition - deal with frustrated love, arranged marriages, mothers mourning their sons killed in battle, harvests too poor to nourish the family, betrothed couples ardently awaiting their union; here too is nature with its succession of mysteries and symbols. These songs contain a whole universe of piety, fatalism and superstition, sometimes recounted with an amused distance; they express both fabled folk wisdom and a poetic lyricism in resonance with the elements: in short, all of “earthly life” is there’ (Salomé Haller)

“A delightful programme, very well sung, that looks to East European influences. Haller and her excellent pianist Nicolas Kruger hold the tension in Bartók's haunting "Berceuse"… both artists bringing the music's exotic roster of harmonic shades into focus. In less sensitive hands Brahms's Ziegeunerlieder can sound overbearing... but here a combination of varied vocal delivery and lightly sprung piano-playing makes or a delightful encounter.” Gramophone Magazine, March 2008