English singers in their prime
Michael Bouman | 02/05/2009
(5 out of 5 stars)
"A friend gave me this today and I'm enchanted. Recorded in 1983, the sound quality is wonderful, with voices and piano sounding as if in a concert hall with "live" acoustics. All but one of the singers were in their prime. Baritone Richard Jackson was, amazingly, only 23 when he made this recording. He sounds much, much more mature. Felicity Lott's "Nacht und Traume" will melt you! Graham Johnson's touch in the piano parts is perfectly apt. He plays a thunderous gallop for Richard Jackson's "Auf der Bruck" and a buoyant, lilting sound for Felicity Lott's "Viola." What a wonderful set! I've got a shelf of CDs by Fisher-Dieskau, Wunderlich, Hotter, Prey, and while the performances here don't beat the German singers of the same era, they don't hide in their shadow, either."