Mozart and Haydn: Lieder

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Composer), Franz Joseph Haydn (Composer), Julius Drake (Performer), Christoph Genz (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Julius Drake, Christoph Genz
• Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Franz Joseph Haydn
• Audio CD (September 26, 2000)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Berlin Classics
• ASIN: B00004T2QL
• Also Available in: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #770,052 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Lovely, March 12, 2004

By 

Larry VanDeSande - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Mozart and Haydn: Lieder (Audio CD)

Here is very nice singing and stylish enunciation by the lesser known of the Genz brothers, tenor Christoph. Genz does a fine job with the not well known Mozart songs and uses spotless English in Haydn's two books of original canzonettas. Many famous tenors and baritones have recorded these songs but few with the inate sense of projection, style and timing Genz brings to the music. Unlike some of the bigger names that have recorded the 12 canzonettas, Genz consciously projects the songs as what they are -- light entertainment, not earth-shattering or vehilces to plumb the depths of the human experience ala Schubert or Mahler. Though I have owned the more critically acclaimed versions by Holzmaier and James Griffett, I have gotten the greatest satisfaction from Haydn's English songs through these interpretations. Genz's tenor is light and airy that, combined with colloquial English and excellent diction, makes this a pleasurable listening experience over and over again. Julius Drake is not the most persuasive accompanist but his work is fine. Twenty-seven pages of notes, biographies and text in English and German will help you understand this music if it is new to you. If you enjoy this CD Genz more recently recorded 16 Schubert songs to poems of Leitner and Seidl on Naxos 8.554796. While the songs are not top drawer Schubert, the experince by Genz is equally as rewarding as this Mozart and Haydn disk.