Search - Hans Hotter, Hugo [Composer] Wolf, Gerald Moore :: Hans Hotter Wolf Lieder Recital

This is a great lieder recital.

John Austin | Kangaroo Ground, Australia | 04/03/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Lieder recitals are rarely commercially viable. Even at Salzburg in the 1930s, they were rarely sold out. To hear settings by Schubert, Schumann, Brahms and Wolf of texts by Goethe, Heine, and other of the great German poets, for solo voice with piano accompaniment, music lovers nowadays can rely more and more on CD issues such as this. I reckon the situation is not one to complain about. Lieder CDs of singers of the present and past can offer good value: clear vocal reproduction, texts in German and translation, and the option of rearranging or repeating items.



Testament have collected the Wolf lieder recorded by Hans Hotter and Gerald Moore during the 1950s. More than 20 lieder were recorded - one twice - and the producer was Walter Legge. Whether as Prometheus fulminating at the gods, or a phoney monk asking to be left alone by the bedside of a sick young woman, whether as an anguished mendicant harper or as a visitor to a beautiful garden who discovers that it contains the grave of Anacreon - Hotter's interpretations are masterly. Gerald Moore accompanies in his usual skilled, robust way.



I detect no technical or performance faults during this 70 minute CD. Some of the later items appear in stereo for the first time. This is a great lieder recital."