Orchestral songs

"It is a fascinating disc with some of the best of his songs in, very often, extremely beautiful readings and with a willingness to penetrate the dramatic possibilities that is praiseworthy. There is a freshness of approach that is stimulating, Julius Drake accompanies in a manner that Liszt himself would have admired - and there isn't a dull phrase in the whole recital ... This series certainly goes from strength to strength".

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"Recording of the week: Clayton brings the same compelling mixture of ardour and vulnerability that made his Glyndebourne Hamlet such a sensation to a selection of German and French songs: the latter, in particular, suggest that the voice is on the cusp of a transition into more dramatic territory ... Spotlit by a pleasingly dry acoustic which allows every thoughtful detail to register, Drake is characteristically eloquent and imaginative throughout - listen, for instance, to the two completely different moods which he invokes with a simple repeated phrase in the space of just two bars in the opening of 'Morgens steh' ich auf und frage'".

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"Liszt was one of the first Lieder composers to write for voice and orchestra, employing the form widely known as the orchestral song ... Martin Haselböck conducts four soloists of different voice types here ... With six orchestral songs, celebrated American baritone Thomas Hampson is the featured singer on this album ... The solo voices and the period instruments, especially the resonant brass with striking orchestral climaxes, are all splendidly captured ... Haselböck directs highly engaging performances of considerable drama in a genre that deserves to be back in favour".

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"The later songs, echoing the stripped back idiom of Liszt's late piano works, hover in territory between melody and recitative ... Cooke is very much alive to their introversion and sadness. The way she encompasses small gradations in volume over a relatively narrow dynamic range impresses, while Drake makes every chord and phrase shiver with meaning".

"A willingness to take risks ... has always been integral to [Clayton's] singing, and the dividends are often enormous ... There are also wonderful moments of lyrical reflection, though, and the way he sings 'Du bist wie eine Blume' with a poised mezza voce is breathtaking. Drake, meanwhile, invests every phrase with weight and meaning, and is, as ever, outstanding. Another fine disc in an exceptional series".

"Editor's choice: The orchestral versions of these songs - four of which are getting their first recordings - provide depth of a particular sort ... The same respectful intensification marks his orchestrations of Schubert-songs, five of which are also included. Liszt can sometimes be a vulgar orchestrator. Not here ... Thomas Hampson's voice has held up well, and his rhetorical acumen keeps us transfixed. The other singers are similarly well matched to the music ... Conductor Martin Haselböck and the period-instrument Vienna Academy Orchestra, who have done so much to recapture the original sound of Liszt's orchestral music, deliver perceptive and often striking support".

"This lovely Liszt recital focuses on settings of German poets ... The particular qualities of Damrau's lustrous coloratura lend an aura of ethereal beauty to several of her interpretations ... In terms of pure singing, these interpretations are undeniably beautiful".

"Vurdering: Recording of the month - Vurdering: Gramophone choice" - "Liszt's songs demand operativ glamour. With her diamantine tone, dramatic flair and free-soaring top notes, Diana Damrau provides it in spades ... Damrau's project should win Liszt's still underrated songs many new friends".

"And the songs themselves give amazingly consistent satisfaction. Of those in this first volume, probably only the Petrarch sonnets will be familiar, and they, certainly, are still outstanding".

"The high expectations roused by Volume 1 of Hyperion's complete Liszt songs ... are more than met with this second instalment ... The velvet-voiced Austrian mezzo Angelika Kirchschlager collaborates with Julius Drake ... and deliver performances that set the beauty and inventiveness of each song in high relief ... This is collaborative music-making of a very high order ... Not to be missed".

"With Drake ever-sensitive to atmosphere and harmonic colour, Kirchschlager ... is in her element ... She brings an ideal simplicity and sincerity to two touching, fragile flower songs ... This recital should open many ears to the richness and variety of his songs. Recording and presentation are first-class".

"Sensitively partnered by Heide, the fastrising young German-Romanian baritone Konstantin Krimmel is a sympathetic Liszt advocate ... always alert to mood, and uses his warm, companionable baritone with fine dynamic control and immaculate diction ... always a pleasure to listen to, and with Heide makes a fine, often probing partnership ... Liszt's songs have long been relegated to the margins. Here is another recording to make you value them afresh".