German-born baritone Benjamin Appl studied with the legendary Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, whose voice his own resembles on the surface. But then he moved to England and has stayed on there. Heimat (Homeland) is not just an exploration of that German concept, but a personal statement and even a bit of an autobiography, with notes from the artist himself (find these if you listen via download or stream) explaining the resonances of each individual song. This kind of personal connection is what classical music in general needs right now, and all the more so in the rather closed tradition of the German Lied.

Old Souls presents masterworks of Beethoven, Dvořák, Wolf and Kreisler in new arrangements for flute and strings, played by a group of outstanding young musicians. Guy Braunstein’s arrangements display these well-known pieces in a fresh new light, while simultaneously expanding the flute repertoire and showcasing the exceptional possibilities of the instrument, here played by Gili Schwarzman. Braunstein and Schwarzman are joined by violinist Susanna Yoko Henkel, violist Amihai Grosz and cellist Alisa Weilerstein. While the arrangement of Beethoven’s Violin Sonata Op. 23 entails a thorough recomposition of the original, the performances of Dvořák’s “American” String Quartet, Wolf’s “Italian” Serenade and Kreisler’s Syncopation stay closer to the source, with the flute taking up the role originally played by the first violin.

Soprano Barbara Hannigan has become something of a cult favorite with her deep dives into specific and unusual repertories. Her self-presentation in concert is unorthodox and marked by full-scale efforts to communicate the essence of the music at hand, in works ranging from Berio to Gershwin. So it is with this set of songs from the decade and a half on either side of 1900 in Vienna. The enjoyment begins with the physically passionate cover, an example of her way of personifying the music's spirit. Hannigan's is an utterly distinctive voice, edgy and coruscating, and she knows how to tone down her considerable virtuosic powers to the dimensions of the music, such as that here, intended for small rooms.

It is perhaps the songs of Hugo Wolf that most closely define Elisabeth Schwarzkopf’s subtle art as a recitalist. At the Salzburg Festival in 1953 she marked the 50th anniversary of the composer’s death in a memorable collaboration with Wilhelm Furtwängler, who – having conducted her frequently in opera and oratorio – here became her accompanist. As the producer Walter Legge wrote: “We must be grateful that this extraordinary occasion was recorded not only for us but also for posterity.”

Throughout history men have feared madwomen, burning them as witches, confining them in asylums and subjecting them to psychoanalysis – yet, they have also been fascinated, unable to resist fantasizing about them. For their new disc, Carolyn Sampson and Joseph Middleton have created a programme that explores the responses of a variety of composers to women whose stories have left them vulnerable and exposed. As a motto they have chosen an aphorism by Nietzsche: ‘There is always some madness in love, but there is also always some reason in madness.’

This important recording presents all of Hugo Wolf’s settings of the poetry of Eichendorff—26 songs in all, several of which seem never to have been recorded before (a fact which is hard to understand because they are very attractive). One of Wolf’s favourite writers, Joseph, Freiherr von Eichendorff (1788–1857) was the German Romantic poet par excellence and his poems are full of the sounds of nature, the beauty of landscape, religious faith, and much musical imagery, with references to minstrels and other musicians. He was the poet of Schumann’s Op 39 Liederkreis, though perhaps the most well-known Eichendorff setting is Im Abendrot from Strauss’s Four Last Songs.

After the success of his stunning album ‘Otello’, revered tenor Jonas Kaufmann returns with the sensational new album ‘Selige Stunde’. ‘Selige Stunde’ is the first recital in a small series of recordings that Jonas has made during the Covid-19 crisis. This stunning album includes a varied and heart-felt selection of songs that cover the most prominent Lieder composers. All tracks are short and are often performed as encores. The theme of the lyrics centre around love, longing, peacefulness and farewell. Kaufmann is considered one of the greatest tenors of this generation. He has performed at the world’s most prestigious concert venues including the Royal Opera House in London and the Metropolitan Opera House in New York. Kaufmann has won numerous prestigious awards including Gramophone Awards and Echo Klassik Awards.

The gestation of this project lasted two years. Anna Prohaska and Julius Drake finally concentrated their research on the themes of Eve, Paradise and banishment. Some songs were obvious choices, such as Fauré's Paradis, in which God appears to Eve and asks her to name each flower and animal, or Purcell's Sleep, Adam, sleep with it's references to Genesis. But Anna Prohaska also wished to illustrate the cliché of the woman who brought original sin into the world and her status as a tempter who leads man astray, as in Brahms's Salamander, Wolf's Die Bekehrte or Ravel's Air du Feu.

Sandrine Piau and the pianist David Kadouch have formed a new duo whose first concerts have been enthusiastically received. As is her wont, the French soprano enjoys intermingling languages and the worlds of different composers and poets around a theme; here Schubert, Liszt, Wolf and Clara Schumann rub shoulders with Lili Boulanger, Duparc and Debussy. Sandrine Piau explains: ‘The promise of new horizons, the joy of new encounters: the journey in all its forms was the common thread of this recital for David and me.

In a scene where the recordings of young sopranos tend toward an extreme sameness, Austria's Anna Prohaska would deserve kudos simply for the ambition of this release of soldiers' songs. The idea, especially for a female singer, is original, and the music draws on a great variety of sources, from Scottish song to Wolfgang Rihm. Better still is the execution, which shows Prohaska's extreme versatility.

Composed in feverish bouts interrupted by long periods of inaction, Hugo Wolf’s Italienisches Liederbuch was brought to completion in 1896. The 46 songs are settings of poems in German by Paul Heyse, after Italian folk songs – miniatures with a duration of less than 2 minutes in most cases. Heyse’s collection numbered more than 350 poems, but Wolf ignored the ballads and laments, and concentrated almost exclusively on the rispetti. These are short love poems which chart, against a Tuscan landscape, the everyday jealousies, flirtations, joys and despairs of men and women in love. Heyse’s translations often intensify the simple Italian of the original poems, and in their turn, Wolf’s settings represent a further heightening of emotion. Miniatures they may be, but many of the songs strike unforgettably at the heart.

After his critically-acclaimed and award-winning 'lieder albums' with pianists Jan Lisiecki (Diapason D'Or, Edison Klassiek Winner) and Seong-Jin Cho (Limelight's 2021 Vocal Recording of the Year) baritone Matthias Goerne concludes his DG lieder trilogy with DG exclusive artist Daniil Trifonov. With this album, Matthias Goerne explores the art song from a metaphysical perspective. In these visionary meditations by Brahms, Wolf, Berg, Schumann and Shostakovich, Goerne and Trifonov's intense, intuitive partnership opens our ears to the awe-inspiring yet consoling voice of the prophets. 'Goerne's forceful vocal stature offers a potent counterpart to Trifonov's elegant flexibility. A great occasion in which two strong individualists interacted with total unanimity.' (Spiegel recital review)

The Juilliard String Quartet was one of the pioneering string quartet formations of the 20th century. Virtuosity in playing technique, sovereign creative power and precisely coordinated tonal balance with X-ray-quality intonation purity characterized the playing of the New York formation around founder and primarius Robert Mann. Indulging in tonal beauty was not their priority. In this way, they moved somewhat outside of what was customary in Central Europe at the time. Their complete recordings for the RCA label, for which they recorded in the short period from 1957 to 1960, appear for the first time bundled on 11 CDs.

Conductor Wilhelm Furtwangler already enjoyed a worldwide legendary standing during his lifetime - he was considered the German conductor and performances were greeted with rapturous applause. Today, more than 50 years after his death, Wilhelm Furtwangler is still an icon and his work has become an integral part ofthe music scene.

This concert is Renee Fleming's very personal homage to 'Fin de Siecle' Vienna. At the turn of the last century, the capital of the Austrian Empire was also one of the cultural centers for the fi ne arts and, in particular, for music. The city of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven, a 'melting pot' of cultures and musical traditions, attracted gifted musicians and composers alike and provided the perfect soil for much of the greatest music of that time. With this selection of works by Hugo Wolf (1860 -1903) and Gustav Mahler (1860 -1911), combined with more progressive songs by Alexander Zemlinsky (1871 - 1942), Arnold Schoenberg (1874 - 1951) and Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897 - 1957), Renee Fleming presents to us the full variety of this unique epoch. The venue of her recital with Maciej Pikulski at the piano is, of course, the Golden Hall of the Musikverein Vienna.