Customer Reviews

Wolf: Lieder - Ian Bostridge with Antonio Pappano

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Ever since Ian Bostridge's first Schumann's recordings, followed by his Schubert's interpretations, we were expecting him to approach Hugo Wolf's intricate lieder. Now, with the exceptional partnership of Maestro Antonio Pappano those expections are doubly rewarded. The interpretation is meticolous, both vocally - Bostridge at his best with maturity of his expressive voice and inner grasp of Wolf's unique voice in this genre, and musically - Pappano renders the piano part with the same, oer rather matching artistry, his hands caress the notes. Together they create the dramas, light the fire and and comfort with a touch of humor. Listen to the Eichendorf's group, followed by the Morike Lieder, and finally to the two Goethe-Lieder, and you will surely repeat it immediately, wondering at these two artists partnership and achievement.

I'd like to agree with the Amazon reviewer that Wolf wrote melodies as simple as Schubert's, simply because new fans of great music are always welcome, but that's like saying that Rimbaud is as simple as Edgar Allen Poe. This is difficult music for most listeners--ambiguous in emotion and harmony, often feverish and always intense. It takes a singer sympathetic to Wolf's world-weary, fin de siecle sensibility to do justice to his songs, and I must say that Bostridge, sensitive to a fault, only half persuades me.

That half has to do with his attention to every nuance of the poetry, which is what the composer asks for, to the point of micro-composing by the syllable. Yet this listener can't get beyond Bostridge's androgynous choir-boy timbre, his hollow nasality, the mannered swells, the almost disembodied head voice, the self-conscious underlining--in a word, he's not remotely to my taste in singers. But I bow to his integirty, and Antonio Pappano provides accompaniments that singers can only dream of. I think many fans of Bostridge and some Wolf fanciers will enthuse over this CD. I wanted to--God knows that new Wolf recitals are scarce--but I found that one listen was more than enough.

Wolf leider is superlative.
Bostridge is pretty stellar.
Pappano is a wonderful foil.
simply, a sweet trifecta.
I enjoy Fischer-Diskau's interprations as well. Bostridge's tone brings another depth to this music for me.