Mahler - Songs
Stephan Genz (baritone) & Roger Vignoles (piano)
This disc shows Stephan Genz entering his fourth decade with all the light suppleness and ardour of his youthful recordings, but now with darker colours and firmer bass ballast folding into...
Mahler - Songs
Stephan Genz (baritone) & Roger Vignoles (piano)
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This disc shows Stephan Genz entering his fourth decade with all the light suppleness and ardour of his youthful recordings, but now with darker colours and firmer bass ballast folding into...
About
This enthralling recital guides the grateful listener on an emotional journey through Mahlers extraordinary output of songs from the folk-inspired Lieder und Gesnge all the way to the tragically consolatory Kindertotenlieder. As different in musical tone as they are in psychological outlook, all of these songs show their composer as a true master of the art. Roger Vignoles admirably embraces the colours of Mahlers orchestrally-minded accompaniments, the piano versions perhaps allowing a more personal aspect of these rich songs to come to the fore; and the rich baritone of Stephan Genz draws the listener ineluctably into a world where honest human feeling is captured in perfection of musical form.
Contents and tracklist
Awards and reviews
This disc shows Stephan Genz entering his fourth decade with all the light suppleness and ardour of his youthful recordings, but now with darker colours and firmer bass ballast folding into his baritone. His intuitive musical partnership with Roger Vignoles is as sentient and perceptive as ever; and together they uncover the dark, sensual mysteries of the late-Romantic response to the natural world
2010
Stephan Genz's voice and style place him above his many noted contemporaries. His mellifluous baritone recalls that of a young Thomas Hampson, but his understanding of the Lieder genre is even more penetrating, as this Mahler recital reveals. Each song is shaped as a whole yet with subtleties of phrase and word-painting that seem inevitable in every respect, especially as the chosen tempi always seem the right ones.
Performing and listening to these songs with piano is inevitably a more intimate experience than when they are heard in their orchestral garb.
The pair's rapport is evident throughout. Memorable are the the poise and stillness of 'Ich atmet' einen Linden duft' from the Rückert-Lieder, the eloquent sadness of 'Nicht Wiedersehen' and the restrained sorrow of the whole of Kindertotenlieder.
Not a hint of sentimentality, such a danger in Mahler, spoils the experience of the composer's deeply felt emotions.
Hyperion's recording, beautifully balanced, catches the true quality of Genz's voice and the refinement of Vignoles's playing. This disc is an experience not to be missed by any lover of Mahler and/or of Lieder.
