MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Schumann: Kerner Lieder, Andersen Lieder & Early Songs

"I liked this recital very much and I have no qualms about recommending it with enthusiasm."
(MusicWeb April 2006 Bargain of the Month)

"Hampson has a growing reputation as a Lieder artist, further justified by this intelligently planned and executed recital. Several of these items were featured in his debut concert at London's Wigmore Hall a few years ago, and his sensitive readings, allied to his pleasant, outgoing manner, immediately won him his audience's attention and approval. As then, he here brings a smooth legato and an affecting, soft-grained tone (reminding me very much of the young Luxon's) to Schumann's early Kerner settings; a broad canvas of dynamics and tonal contrasts to Opp. 35 (Kerner again) and 40 (Andersen settings). He has the right vigour for ''Wanderung'', the intensity for ''Stille Tranen'' (both Op. 35), and the sense of an expectant narrative in ''Der Soldat'' (Op. 40).
Why then at the end did I have a sense of disappointment? In the case of Op. 35, it was undoubtedly because I kept on remembering the added frisson of excitement, concentration and feeling for the texts shown by Fischer-Dieskau in his 1959 Salzburg Festival live performances on Orfeo/Harmonia Mundi, an experience repeated when he more recently sang these pieces and Op. 40 in London. Where Hampson seems to be recollecting some of the emotions in tranquillity, the older baritone makes them immediate and often unbearably poignant. Maybe the touch of caution in Hampson's interpretations was brought about by the need for perfection in an aseptic studio. I don't know, but I have to report as I find, and putting on Fischer-Dieskau in ''Stirb, Lieb' und Freud'' or ''Stille Liebe'' did point up a distinct preference for his readings and for Moore's more individual and pointed playing over that of Parsons. In the last two Kerner settings, like Op. 35 composed in December 1840 (in spite of their late opus numbers), Hampson comes up against no comparisons, and once again demonstrates his pleasing virtues. The recording is faultless."
(Gramophone 1991)