<<  -- 3 --  David Wilkins    CREATIVE BEAUTY

The collection of performers is a lieder-fan's dream. Christopher Maltman sets the standard on the opening track with a reading of Der Alpenjager which is forceful but without histrionics -- clearly thought through and, as everything under Graham Johnson's direction, entirely convincing. Worthy of special mention are Thomas Hampson in the splendid (and, once, much better known) Meyhofer setting, Atys, who manages to capture the particular longing for homeliness in the text [listen -- track 6, 0:46-1:28] and who produces a particular vocal quality of displacement (familiar, too, in his Mahler recordings) which seems just right for the searching intensity of the poem. Marjana Lipovsek [listen, track 13, 1:33-2:20] is the only female singer entrusted with a solo song on the disc and what wonderful mezzo tone she brings to the lovely Schlegel setting of Das Madchen. Matthias Goerne also captures the exquisite personal sentiment of another Schlegel setting in Der gefangenen Sanger where the particularly Schubertian philosophy of creative beauty being, of necessity, born of personal suffering is revealed in singing of contained but palpable identification. Nothing is over-done but everything is stated with just the sufficient emotion that leads the listener into an involvement that encourages a nod of the head and an identifying sigh. There are a few bits of -- never less than enjoyable -- trivia on the way to the final song of the disc where Christopher Maltman brings matters to a 'heartease' of a conclusion [listen, track 19, 1:04-2:03] with the tiny little Goethe setting, Wandrers Nachtlied II, promising -- in Graham Johnson's appropriate words -- 'ineffable peace..but...our fear of the unknown and our reluctance to leave all this beauty behind.'

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