Classical CD review: Brahms, Lieder & Liebeslieder Waltzes

Brahms, Lieder & Liebeslieder Waltzes (Deutsche Grammophon)

New Zealand concert audiences are meagrely served when it comes to the art of song. While local initiatives now bring us the world's leading pianists in recital, evenings of lieder and artsong are lamentably few.

A new Deutsche Grammophon CD transports us back 13 years to one such occasion at the Verbier Festival, when a quartet of distinguished singers and two celebrated pianists presented a generous 80 minutes of Brahms.

All six take the stage for the composer's 1869 Liebeslieder Waltzes along with their later sequel, the New Liebeslieder Waltzes.

The first set, by far the superior of the two, is absolutely exhilarating. One senses a real communal joy emanating from Andrea Rost, Magdalena Kozena, Matthew Polenzani and Thomas Quasthoff, gathered around the two pianos of Yefim Bronfman and James Levine.

Brahms wanted this music to give listeners the most direct of pleasures imaginable, which it certainly does here, dancing from the simple landler of Schubert to the elegant
Viennese ballrooms of the Strauss family, with a dash of Hungarian musical paprika on the side.

Four brackets of solo lieder offer a thoughtful introduction to the range of the composer's songwriting. Unfortunately, these are not totally satisfying performances.

Tenor Polenzani is more effective in wistful than heroic mode and soprano Rost suffers from a disconcerting tightness of tone. Kozena, with two of Brahms' best-known songs, Feldeinsamkeit and Immer Leiser wird mein Schlummer heightens both with her finely tuned communicative skills.

Predictably, bass-baritone Quasthoff proves to be the consummate lieder singer in the five songs of Opus 94, with a glorious Sapphic Ode, delivered with an effortless legato line, the like of which is heard far too rarely these days.

What: Brahms, Lieder & Liebeslieder Waltzes (Deutsche Grammophon)
Rating: 4/5
Verdict: A welcome, if flawed, sampling from the Brahms songbook.