The music of Austrian composer Joseph Marx (1882-1964) largely fell out of public favor very early in his career, after the First World War, but he continued to compose in the same lushly late-Romantic idiom throughout his long life. A significant part of his work consists of songs and because of that and because of their shared interest in some of the same poets, he is sometimes compared with Hugo Wolf, over 20 years his senior, but his music is closer to the harmonic conservatism of his friend Erich Wolfgang Korngold, whose European career also went into eclipse in the wake of the war.

Graham Johnson’s complete Schubert and Schumann songs series for Hyperion are landmarks in the history of recorded music. Now this indefatigable performer and scholar turns to the songs and vocal works of Brahms. Each disc of this Hyperion edition takes a journey through Brahms’s career. The songs are not quite presented in chronological order but they do appear here in the order that the songs were presented to the world. Each recital represents a different journey through the repertoire (and thus through Brahms’s life). In a number of these Hyperion recitals an opus number will be presented in its entirety (in the case of this disc, Op 48). The folksongs of 1894 will be shared between all the singers in the series.

Diana Damrau and Angelika Kirchschlager star in the acclaimed 2008 production of Humperdinck's famous fairytale opera, in the company of two of Britain's most revered musical figures: Thomas Allen, playing the role of the Father, and the legendary conductor Colin Davis. Directors Patrice Caurier and Moshe Leiser combine their characteristic wit and a dash of deliciously dark comedy with the opera's fairytale charm. Humperdinck's music mixes catchy folk-like songs with sumptuous instrumental colour, making the result as tunefully approachable, musically memorable and visually delightful as opera gets. Filmed in High Definition and recorded in full Surround Sound.

This second volume of Hyperion’s newest Lieder series features the great dramatic and musical gifts of mezzo-soprano Angelika Kirchschlager. Internationally renowned on the opera stage, the concert hall and the recording studio, Kirchschlager is an ideal performer of these most varied, complex and emotionally charged songs. She is accompanied by the multi-Gramophone Award-winning Julius Drake, who curates the series.

This is a beautiful recording. The music is great and includes some of Bach's most famous arias, as well as several less so; however, about two thirds are slow, solemn, devout, and often mournful. The singing is wonderful. Angelika Kirchschlager's voice, flawlessly produced even in the very low register dictated by baroque tuning, is smooth as silk and warm as velvet. Her intonation is immaculate, and her breath control lets her spin out and shape endless phrases; every note is alive and expressive.