Orfeo

This is an album that discerning music lovers will find fascinating. As the third volume published by Orfeo of an anthology of late radio recordings by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, it brings together recordings devoted to five 20th-century composers recorded between 1983 and 1997.Maurice Ravel opens this amazing publication. The immense German singer sings and recites the ever-so special music of the French composer’s melodies with just the right amount of mannerism and preciousness. On piano, Hartmut Höll is a dream partner whose fingers seem to glide along Ravel’s silky music.This is followed by a selection of Lieder by Paul Hindemith, setting to music beautiful poems by Hölderlin, Rückert, Claudius and other English authors, with excerpts from the 9 English Songs accompanied on piano by Aribert Reimann, who is also the author of the cantata Unrevealed for baritone and string quartet, written for Fischer-Dieskau, presented in the last part of this box set - the Cherubini Quartet officiates alongside the singer.Also included in this precious volume are the anthologies of Lieder by Hermann Reutter and Wolfgang Fortner, with the collaboration of several vocal artists surrounding Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, whose curiosity and encyclopaedic knowledge never ceases to amaze us. Reutter (1900-1985) was a sought-after pianist-accompanist, but also a specialist in Lieder and a composer writing in a neo-classical modernism sometimes compared to Hindemith and Honegger. Heavily involved with the Nazis, his contemporary Wolfgang Fortner became one of the important figures of new music in Darmstadt and trained a whole generation of young German composers in the post-war years. © François Hudry/Qobuz

Almost ten years after his passing, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau continues to amaze us with his seemingly infinite discography. The great German baritone was renowned for his intelligence and paying particular attention to the text, rendering it intelligible through his excellent diction and using it as the dynamic and rhythmic force behind every song he sang.This exciting collection features concert recordings of a particularly ingenious programme of Lied, words written by poets and set to music by composers such as Goethe, Eichendorff and Dehmel. It features numerous musicians who have all been specially selected, including the quiet and eloquent Swiss pianist Karl Engel, the composer, pianist, and regular accompanist for many singers Aribert Reimann, as well as lifelong friend Wolfgang Sawallisch, a famous conductor and sought-after pianist who has played Lied and chamber music all of his life.The final album in this superb anthology is dedicated to European romanticism, with music from composers from Italy, Germany, England, Austria and Sweden. Recorded at the Hochschule für Musik (The University of Music and Performing Arts) in Munich in 1983 at the end of the singer’s career, it features another specially chosen collaboration with pianist Hartmut Höll. Once again, Fischer-Dieskau’s encyclopaedic knowledge of music goes hand in hand with his exceptional talent for singing. © François Hudry/Qobuz

The buzz surrounding this album has to do with the startling voice of Samuel Mariño, but it has other attractions as well in the form of pieces that might have been heard at a London concert mounted jointly by Handel and Gluck in 1746. The album bills Mariño as a "male soprano," a term he has used in his own publicity. How does he do it? Nobody is saying. Mariño is a product of Venezuela's still strong musical education system, and he was 27 years old when this album appeared in 2020. Buyers can amuse themselves by setting up blind hearing tests for their friends: it is an open question of how many of them will identify the singer as male. Mariño especially excels in the brutal passagework of the arias by the hotshot young Gluck. These are virtuoso arias, from the years before Gluck simplified the operatic language with his reforms and pointed the way directly to Mozart. They are in the nature of an extreme extension of the old style, and to hear them taken on by a young singer who can handle them offers excitement galore. The Gluck operas excerpted -- Antigono, La Sofonisba, La corona, and Il tigrane -- are all but unknown, and the Handel operas aren't much more familiar. This is all to the good, but the main attraction is Mariño's voice, and the Händelfestspieleorchester Halle under Michael Hofstetter has the good sense to stay out of his way. © TiVo

Richard Strauss' Die Frau ohne Schatten, Op. 65 (1911), has been called the last Romantic opera, and it pushes singers to their limits. It requires powerhouse Wagner-Strauss specialists, especially in the lead female roles of the Empress and the Nurse, and it receives them here in Camilla Nylund and Evelyn Herlitzius, respectively. They make an impressive pair, with Herlitizius' slashing soprano a vivid counterpoint to Nylund's soaring one, but ultimately, Die Frau ohne Schatten is a conductor's opera. It failed at first, with its complex snarl of orchestral parts, and it requires a leader who can control all of the layers of sound. Those at this live 2019 production from the Vienna State Opera spoke in awe of conductor Christian Thielemann's cool, minimal gestures, seemingly at odds with the oversized fairy-tale story, but essential to communicating it musically. Strands of orchestral texture spring into focus and then link up with what is coming next, nor does he let the vocally virtuosic cast take star turns; they work as an ensemble. Orfeo's live sound has a minimum of interference with the listener's enjoyment. Whatever one thinks of Thielemann, this is a major notch in his baton. © TiVo

A pupil of the great Soviet-Georgian pianist Elisso Virsaladze, Amir Katz started studying piano in Israel before he established himself in Germany and perfecting his craft with Leon Fleisher and Murray Perahia. If Amir Katz is known for being an extremely sought-after accompanist, this album which pays tribute to Franz Liszt unveils his talent as a fully-blown concert pianist. His technique is fluid and charming, with a great reserve of strength and infinite variety of colours. After an original first part which is dedicated to a few etudes of concerts, from the Études d’après Paganini to the Réminiscences de Don Juan, Amir Katz throws himself into the Douze Études d'exécution transcendante that are presented here in their entirety. His utterly stunning technique brings an ever-changing perspective to these pieces. © François Hudry/Qobuz

A cantata, long melody and mini-opera all at once, The Diary of One Who Disappeared is a profoundly original piece whose prosody is modelled on the scansion and intonations of Moravian poetry, like all of Janáček’s work. It is the poetic diary of a young farmer who falls in love with a gypsy and decides to go off with her and their new child. Distinctly affected by these popular poems, Janáček kept them under wraps. His love for Kamila was the inspiration for the writing of this splendid work which eventually became a recognition of his own existence. Perhaps slightly inaccessible for those who do not understand the language or have not read the translation before listening, this vast cycle of poems is written for a tenor, with the presence of a contralto (Ester Pavlu here) and a women’s choir which is supported all the way through by an important piano part. Born in Slovakia, the tenor Pavol Breslik sings close to his roots, taking the work from the operatic side, a rather romantic treatment which makes it considerably more successful and modifying its popular appeal. © François Hudry/Qobuz