Brahms: Bei dir sind meine Gedanken (No. 2 from Sieben Lieder, Op. 95)

“Graham Johnson, once again, is both mastermind and pianist, and, as ever, his accompanying notes and essays are as witty and richly allusive as his playing...This recital is beautifully shaped.” BBC Music Magazine, July 2010 ****

“Angelika Kirchschlager sings with purity of tone, evenly produced and unfailingly accurate in intonation...Graham Johnson's notes...complementary to his playing, are enlightening as ever and in a way which only he knows how to be.” Gramophone Magazine, August 2010

“Johnson's arrangement of this recital and his exceptional accompanying skills, together with Kirchschlager's voice and approach, almost always so appropriate to Brahms, make this a highly desirable disc.” International Record Review, July/August 2010

“Kirchschlager’s charm shines through in the lighter, more folkish songs of Op 48 and more high-spirited inspirations such as the enchanting O komme, holde Sommernacht and Bei dir sind meine Gedanken.” The Telegraph, 13th June 2010 **

“This selection keeps springing pleasant surprises. Kirchschlager’s articulation can be veiled, but she always sings with feeling, and Graham Johnson expertly judges the quirky piano accompaniments. His notes, as usual, are awesomely detailed.” The Times, 29th May 2010 ****

“From Roger Vignoles's first light-filled notes in 'Bei mir sind meine Gedanken', with Bernada Fink's smiling, wide-eyed voice, these performers make it sound as though the ink is still wet on Brahms's manuscripts. The real skill of Fink and Vignoles is to capture that fusion of physical and emotional movement within a song - and to recreate it with real spontaneity.” BBC Music Magazine, March 2007 ****

“'Bei dir sind meine Gedanken', one of Brahms's happiest songs, makes an inviting aperitif. Buoyed by the evanescent shimmer of Roger Vignoles's accompaniment, Bernarda Fink is all confiding eagerness, phrasing deftly and gracefully and showing a natural feeling for Brahmsian rubato. One would expect Fink's warm, luminous mezzo, flecked by darker, deeper tints, to be near ideal for, say, the nostalgia of 'Alte Liebe' or the many songs of elegiac loss and heartbreak, all touchingly done here. But having thought of her as an essentially 'serious' singer, dignified, eloquent, the vivacity and 'face' she brings to 'Bei dir sind meine Gedanken' and other lighter songs is sheer delight. 'Ständchen', here more sunlit than moonlit, is charmingly characterised, with an affectionate caress on the dreaming girl's 'Vergiss nicht mein'. Fink is playfully coquettish without archness in the delicious 'Spanisches Lied', and sings 'Vergebliches Ständchen' with an outgoing boldness and witty touches of timing – and the tender lingering on the penultimate 'Mein Knab' suggests that the boy's luck may soon be about to change.
Other singers have brought a more intense yearning to 'Die Mainacht' and found greater mystery amid the slumberous balm of 'Feldeinsamkeit'.
But Fink's flowing performances, sensitively shaped and inflected, are never less than satisfying. It is good to be reminded, too, that, for all its melancholy, 'Die Mainacht' is also a song of spring, suffused by warm major-key harmonies, with a hint of excited anticipation at the line 'Wann, o lächelndes Bild'. On the face of it, Fink's lyric mezzo would seem to be on the light side for 'Von ewiger Liebe'. But with Vignoles imaginatively 'orchestrating' the keyboard part, she gives a finely graded, deeply moving performance, vividly contrasting the contained passion of the boy's words with the girl's gentle candour. The glowing climactic avowal of eternal love is truly overwhelming, setting the seal on a Brahms recital of rare distinction.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“For all the tragic, premature loss last year of Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, Argentinian Bernarda Fink is just one of a golden generation of mezzos vying for the mantle of Janet Baker. One of the most versatile, as at ease in Baroque repertoire as in music from Handel and Mozart to Schumann, Fink's rich, warm voice boasts the perfect blend of colour and clarity for this selection of 31 songs from the almost 200 Brahms wrote. Her musical intelligence combines with the sensitivity of Roger Vignoles to capture the folk-song spirit behind their urbane polish.” The Observer