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But I Like to Sing...

Carolyn Sampson

Classical - Released November 3, 2023 | BIS

Hi-Res Booklet
The curious title of this album, the 100th by the wonderful soprano Carolyn Sampson, comes from Leonard Bernstein's I Hate Music, one of the Five Kid Songs he wrote in 1943; the but I like to sing ... album title is the consequent to the song's title. Sampson perfectly catches the wit of this song, which is certainly not only for children, and she is among the few non-American singers who can do a persuasive American accent with a full retroflex "r." Sampson indicates that while the program is not autobiographical, "it is personal, and I've chosen [the songs] because they reflect some of the ways in which music heightens our emotions, eases our pain, deepens our love." She goes on to say that these powers of music are especially needed at the current troubled historical juncture. All of this may be quite true, yet after hearing the album, one may think that it has a second purpose. Among all the beautiful voices on the scene in 2023, no other is as versatile as Sampson's. Bernstein is just the beginning. The program ranges from German to French to English, from chestnuts (Gounod's Ave Maria) to quite rare items (the 12 Chants de Bilitis by Rita Strohl, a fascinating comparison with Debussy's settings), from humorous to philosophical, from Schubert to the late Kaija Saariaho. It all hangs together miraculously, leaving the listener with the impression that Sampson is indeed in touch with deeper currents. This is indeed a joyous and fitting summation of the career to date of one of today's great sopranos, with much more to come.© James Manheim /TiVo
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Mozart & Strauss: Lieder

Sabine Devieilhe

Vocal Music (Secular and Sacred) - Released March 29, 2024 | Warner Classics

Hi-Res Booklet Distinctions 4F de Télérama
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Brahms – Reger: Song Transcriptions

Rudolf Buchbinder

Classical - Released March 22, 2024 | Deutsche Grammophon (DG)

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Brahms: Complete Liebeslieder Walzer, Op. 52 & 65, Hungarian Dances

Rias Kammerchor

Choral Music (Choirs) - Released November 4, 2022 | harmonia mundi

Hi-Res Booklet
In these love songs in waltz style for chorus or solo voices accompanied by piano four hands, Brahms freely indulged his taste for Viennese folk music. The RIAS-Kammerchor instils a wonderful inner life in these musical landscapes, sometimes cheerful, sometimes melancholy, punctuated here by a selection from the Hungarian Dances – also eminently popular in their inspiration. © harmonia mundi
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Brahms, Schumann & Mahler: Lieder

Renée Fleming

Classical - Released June 14, 2019 | Decca Music Group Ltd.

Hi-Res Booklet
A long break. In the fall of 2018, Renée Fleming sang for Broadway musicals under the BBC Concert Orchestra led by Rob Fisher including the likes of Jerome Kern, Richard Rogers, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Stephen Sondheim, and some lesser-known names. A little unexpected yet welcome, with this new work, the American soprano returns to a more traditional repertoire. To be precise, she puts forward a very beautiful selection of Brahms’ Lieder, the entirety of Schumann’s Fraueliebe und -Leben Op. 42, and finally Mahler’s Rückert-Lieder in an orchestral interpretation led by Christian Thielemann with the Münchner Philharmoniker. Today, Renée Fleming’s tone is perfectly crepuscular, autumnal and suitable for these Lieders filled with melancholy. Harmut Höll’s accompaniments are beautiful (especially in Brahms), and the direction of Thielemann is often poetic
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Selige Stunde

Jonas Kaufmann

Classical - Released September 4, 2020 | Sony Classical

Hi-Res Booklet
Although Covid-19 has forced many musicians to cancel their concerts and recordings in 2020, it has also sparked creativity and allowed people to enjoy calmer moments – something that’s rare when you have a busy career. Jonas Kaufmann did not waste his time during lockdown, recording several Lieder albums with his accomplice, the pianist Helmut Deutsch.“Selige Stunde” (“Blessed Hours!”) is the first fruit of his quarantine which brings together a selection of Lieder from Mozart to Mahler, including Schubert, Mendelssohn, Grieg, Strauss, Brahms, Wolf, Schumann and extremely rare gems such as Ännchen von Tharau by Friedrich Silcher or the unusual In mir klingt ein Lied composed by Alois Melichar on the Etude, Op. 10 No. 3 by Chopin.Time and intensive use have gradually tarnished Jonas Kaufmann's voice and his timbre has darkened without compromising any of its expression or exceptional range. With quarantine making it impossible to use a recording studio, the two friends recorded this album in a private home with as few people as possible. It’s a “blessing in disguise” for Jonas Kaufmann and Helmut Deustch, who were able to find the tone of a private concert in the intimacy of a living room for this recording. © François Hudry/Qobuz
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Richard Strauss : Lieder avec orchestre

Diana Damrau

Classical - Released January 17, 2011 | Warner Classics

Booklet Distinctions Diapason d'or - Diamant d'Opéra - Choc de Classica - Choc Classica de l'année
In her fourth solo recital on Virgin Classics, German coloratura Diana Damrau turns to Richard Strauss' orchestral songs, featuring a generous selection that includes about half of his output for voice and orchestra. Damrau's extensive experience as an interpreter of the composer's operas is evident in this exceptionally attractive album. That deep familiarity combined with an impeccable technique; the warm, velvety sheen of her voice; and the nuance, insight, and personality of her interpretations make her an outstanding Strauss singer, one who may well join the ranks of the most distinguished. The various demands of the songs recorded here demonstrate the extent of Damrau's versatility. She commands the expansive lyricism and the ability to sustain soaring legato lines that make her ideal for the ecstatic serenity of songs like "Heimkehr," Waldseligkeit," and "An die Nacht." Her coloratura background makes her equally at ease in the florid virtuosity required for songs like "Amor" and "Ich wollt ein Sträusslein binden." Only in "Allerseelen" (which was orchestrated not by Strauss but Robert Heger) does she sound like she is straining against the orchestra. The recital includes all six songs of the Brentano-Lieder, infrequently performed as a set because they are so varied in their demands on the singer, but Damrau handles them with absolute assurance. The vocal intensity and the emotional depth and range she brings to the final song, "Lied der Frauen," make it especially impressive, bringing the album to a cathartic close. The many satisfactions of the album make the listener eager to hear Damrau in the Four Last Songs, in which she ought to be spectacular. It's gratifying to have such distinguished accompaniment provided by the Münchner Philharmoniker led by Christian Thielemann; the conductor and orchestra sound like they have this music in their blood and are in every way a worthy match for Damrau. The sound is clean, well defined, and nicely present.© TiVo
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Lieder (Beethoven, Brahms, Schubert, Schumann...)

Fritz Wunderlich

Lieder (German) - Released September 14, 2018 | SWR Classic

Booklet Distinctions Diapason d'or

Heimat (Schubert, Wolf, Brahms, Reger, Grieg, Britten...)

Benjamin Appl

Art Songs, Mélodies & Lieder - Released March 10, 2017 | Sony Music Classical Local

Booklet Distinctions Gramophone Award - Gramophone Editor's Choice - 5 Sterne Fono Forum Klassik
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Lieder von Schubert, Brahms, Schumann

Vesselina Kasarova

Classical - Released April 5, 1999 | RCA Red Seal

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Encounter

Igor Levit

Classical - Released September 11, 2020 | Sony Classical

Hi-Res Booklet Distinctions Diapason d'or / Arte
The latest album ‘Encounter’ by the German-Russian pianist is a particularly astonishing one, blending the diverse works of great composers such as Bach, Brahms and Morton Feldman. While the 2020 health crisis, due to the covid19 virus, has caused great anxiety among the general population it has also ignited the imagination of artists and musicians alike. Locked down in his apartment like so many us, the pianist Igor Levitt broadcasted a daily, live performance on his social media, even going as far as playing a 20 hour piece, Vexations by Erik Satie. ‘Encounter’, the product of Levitt’s self-isolation during lockdown, brings together an intelligent and pleasing array of composers. From Bach arranged by Busoni at the Palais de Mari, or the latest work from Morton Feldman for solo piano, to Brahms arranged by Reger, these are intimate connections between composers, as much as they are moments of solidarity at a time or great loneliness and isolation. Levitt’s poignant introspection and devotion to humanity shines throughout his album. © François Hudry/Qobuz
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Brahms: The Violin Sonatas

Leonidas Kavakos

Classical - Released March 31, 2014 | Decca Music Group Ltd.

Hi-Res Booklet Distinctions Gramophone Editor's Choice
This cycle of Brahms' violin sonatas presents two of the more charismatic artists on the current scene, neither of them particularly known for Brahms. It works quite a bit better than you might expect. In a way pianist Yuja Wang is the star of the show. The Brahms sonatas still carry a trace of the violin sonata's origins with a violin accompanying the keyboard, and it is often the pianist who leads and sets the tone; in many movements Wang establishes a warmth and depth that are a bit out of character with her usual flamboyant style. She then plays nicely off of Kavakos' lyrical lines with her own more urgent style. The deeper logic of these works might be better served by a more neutral approach, but the overall impression is of two distinct personalities in conversation about the music, and that's the chamber music ideal. An added attraction is the presence of the scherzo from the early F-A-E Sonata, a work collaboratively written by Brahms, Schumann, and Albert Dietrich; Brahms' scherzo is a sort of essay in the Beethoven short-short-short long motif, and it allows Wang to really take command. An enjoyable outing that shows Wang, especially, developing talents beyond her comfort zone. Overly closely miked sound detracts from the experience.© TiVo
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Brahms : Viola Sonatas, Op. 120 - Zwei Gesänge, Op. 91

Antoine Tamestit

Chamber Music - Released February 12, 2021 | harmonia mundi

Hi-Res Booklet
It's hard to imagine how anything could have been improved upon with this Brahms recital from three of Harmonia Mundi's most sensitive and interesting artists. The programming alone is a work of art: the idea of pairing the viola versions of Brahms's two autumnal Op. 120 Clarinet Sonatas inspired by Meiningen Orchestra clarinettist Richard Mühlfeld, with three further softly intimate works of his showcasing the viola's similarities with the human voice – viola and piano arrangements of Nachtigall from the six Op. 97 Songs (extra resonant, when Brahms described Mühlfeld as the nightingale of the orchestra) and the famous Op. 49 Wiegenlied, followed by the Op. 91 Zwei Gesänge for Voice, Viola and Piano. Then there's the instruments, because for Tamestit and Tiberghien these are just as important to the music's alchemy as the abilities of the performers, and their quest to find the perfect match for the penetrating, multi-shaded tones of Tamestit's Stradivarius viola eventually led them to an 1899 Bechstein piano. The result was two instruments capable of a range of colours and roundness of sound across all registers and through even the most virtuosic of passages; and that's precisely what you hear across the resultant lyrically tender, natural-feeling readings, because beyond the hand in glove chamber partnering you're hearing, their respective tones are both alive with colouristic complexities and verily glowing. Then, beyond being simply delicious, the vocal quality Tamestit draws out from the famous Wiegenlied melody serves as the perfect overture to the programme's Zwei Gesänge – shaped icing on the cake – yet another perfect combination, Tamestit's lines lovingly encircling and dovetailing with Goerne's own richly warm, gentle baritone, the polished Teldex Studio engineering casting them on satisfyingly equal footings with each other, with the piano just slightly behind. In short, absolutely gorgeous. © Charlotte Gardner/Qobuz
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Brahms Analogue: Cello Sonatas 1&2, Four Serious Songs

Leonard Elschenbroich

Chamber Music - Released November 25, 2022 | PM Classics Ltd.

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The Brahms Analogue title of this release by cellist Leonard Elschenbroich and pianist Alexei Grynyuk does not refer to some abstract concept but is literal; the album was recorded onto analog tape at Abbey Road Studios and then digitally processed. It even bears the old ADD SPARS code. Audio buffs like to claim that old analog LPs had a warmer sound than their modern digital counterparts, and here, listeners can judge for themselves; even on modest sound equipment, the sound is indeed different from the pristine norm of contemporary product. Less publicized has been the fact that the interpretations of Elschenbroich and Grynyuk are distinctive, quite apart from the analog recording. Performances of Brahms, if competently executed, probably differ less than those of works by other composers, but these two players introduce an unusual amount of rhythmic freedom into the composer's two cello sonatas. On one hand, this demands an unusual degree of coordination between cellist and pianist, and Elschenbroich and Grynyuk, a significant developing partnership, show the fruits of long collaboration and lots of detail work on these particular pieces. On the other, listeners may feel that with small details prioritized in this way, the cello sonatas lose a degree of control over the long line. Again, listeners' reactions may reasonably differ. Most, however, will value the final transcriptions for cello and piano of the Vier ernste Gesänge, Op. 121, shorter works where rhythmic freedom is not a problem; these are memorable performances. This is assuredly not the usual Brahms, and listeners are invited to check them out for themselves.© James Manheim /TiVo
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Winter Journeys

Lautten Compagney

Classical - Released October 20, 2023 | deutsche harmonia mundi

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Reger & Mahler: Works

Christoph Spering

Classical - Released October 6, 2023 | CapriccioNR

Hi-Res Distinctions Diapason d'or
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Good Night !

Bertrand Chamayou

Classical - Released October 9, 2020 | Warner Classics

Hi-Res Booklet Distinctions Diapason d'or
Pianist Bertrand Chamayou's Good Night! takes its title from one of the numbers of Leoš Janáček's From an Overgrown Path, which opens the program. It's appropriate, for the entire program consists of works capturing the moment when sleep comes. They go by the names of lullaby, berceuse, wiegenlied, and more, but they have are consistent in tone, and listeners in search of an album with which to unwind and even to fall asleep to will be satisfied here. The program is very artfully constructed so as to deepen the mood with each piece. (That is, until Helmut Lachenmann's Wiegenmusik, a modernist work that may wake one right up again.) There are some familiar examples of the genre from Liszt, Brahms (the "Brahms Lullaby," in an arrangement by Max Reger), and Chopin, but also lesser-known works by Sergei Lyapunov, the worth-knowing female composer Mel Bonis, and Bryce Dessner, whose entrancing Song for Octave confirms that he has moved definitively beyond being included on programs simply to draw in rock music fans. However, it's Chamayou's playing that ties the whole thing together; he keeps the music at a low but constant intensity and has remarkable control throughout. This is an ideal gift for those with a new baby, or really for anyone else.© TiVo
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Brahms & Bruckner: Motets

Anton Bruckner

Classical - Released October 30, 2015 | Signum Records

Hi-Res Booklet Distinctions 5 de Diapason
Maybe the combination of Brahms and Bruckner with the British choir Tenebrae sounds a little strange: the choir has specialized in Renaissance music and generally in music built on that sound ideal. Maybe the combination of the abstract, devout, and technically demanding Bruckner with the friendly and humanist Brahms sounds a little strange, too. But it all works out very nicely. In the 19th century, when choral music was a bigger part of everyday musical life than it is now, this would have been a program any good municipal choir would have loved to present. And Tenebrae bulks up its style a bit. They hit Bruckner's punishing high notes with the requisite perfect chill, and you can sample one of the large motets at the beginning, such as Ecce sacerdos (track three), for the full range of this choir's remarkable technical control under director Nigel Short. In Brahms pieces like the familiar "How lovely are thy dwellings" from the German Requiem, Op. 45 (track 11), the choir might even be called unusually weighty. Signum hits the ball out of the park sonically with engineering work at London's Temple Church, and the end result is a satisfying and unusual choral disc. A substantial donation from each copy of this album sold goes to Macmillan Cancer Support.© TiVo
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An English Coronation (1902, 1911, 1937, 1953)

Paul McCreesh

Classical - Released May 3, 2019 | Signum Records

Hi-Res Booklet Distinctions Diapason d'or - Gramophone Editor's Choice - Le Choix de France Musique
Fans of the British crown’s splendour will certainly marvel at this double album that reproduces the coronation anthems of the four monarchs of the 20th century: Edward VII in 1902, George V in 1911, George VI in 1937, and current Queen Elizabeth II in 1953. Very few of today’s ceremonies can reach such levels of grandeur.At the crossroads of tradition and innovation, these coronation ceremonies are characterised by the evocation of past heritage works, and the addition of numerous pieces commissioned specifically for the occasion to the best composers in the kingdom. For such events, Westminster Abbey is closed for several months to allow an army of craftsmen to build monumental galleries capable of hosting up to eight thousand guests. Then come the rehearsals with 400-singer choirs, half of them children, an immense orchestra, and the indispensable great organ.This recording is a selection of the best moments of these ceremonies, presented as a single liturgical structure. This ample reconstitution led by Paul McCreesh follows for the most part the 1937 ceremony, dropping however the era’s typical style when interpreting Handel. The musical approach has changed so much that it is presented here in the “baroque” style characteristic of our early 21st century. Some difficult choices were made, particularly regarding the Te Deum, the centrepiece and climax of the ceremony. A Cornelian choice between the ones from Stanford (1902), Parry (1911), Vaughan Williams (1937) and William Walton (1953). The latter was finally chosen, for its radiance and theatrical impetus. © François Hudry/Qobuz
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Music for Royal Occasions

London Symphony Orchestra

Symphonies - Released May 5, 2023 | LSO Live