Customer Reviews

The Lieder Anthology - Accompaniment CDs: The Vocal Library Low Voice

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These accompaniments are very well done and very useful for practicing a variety of German art songs. I wish that I had transferred them to the hard drive of my computer as soon as I opened them, however, as the playing surface of one of them was taken off by coming into contact with the adhesive used to close the plastic CD pocket, and several tracks on another one seems to have problems when I try to play it after several years of occasional use. I contacted Hal Leonard to ask about getting replacements for the CD's and they do not offer them (unless you buy them again).

The availability of these accompaniments was a big part of the reason I bought the Lieder Anthology book. Laura Ward's accompaniments are always great and that doesn't change here. I've sung about 30 of the songs and have found the tempi quite reasonable. Where there are fermatas or rubato, the piano plays the vocal line so you can follow how fast she's taking it. I've found it easy to learn the songs with these accompaniments - her playing is very clear and precise, leaving no needless ambiguity as to tempo, meter, etc. When the vocal part starts at the very beginning of a piece, a chord is given one bar in advance to help the singer find the pitch and the tempo.

I had pretty high expectations of these CDs based on Laura Ward's other work, and I wasn't disappointed.