Customer Reviews

Wolf: Lieder Recital (1958)

5 star:		(2)
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Everything about the lieder of Hugo Wolf suited Schwarzkopf perfectly--both were urbane, refined, ultra-self-conscious artists. She gave summer song recitals with Gerald Moore every season at Salzzburg through the Fifties, and all are great treasures. This one is devoted entirely to Wolf, which is a bit like a whole dinner of caviar, but one can't complain--great artistry is displayed throughout.

I have most (about 20) of Schwarzkopf's stage and studio recitals of lieder and love them all, even the few that in places justify her critics' complaints of cloyingness and manneredness. 6 or 7 of these (especially the Wolf recitals) rate absolutely sublime, with incomparable jewels of wonder and perfection. But THIS, the 1958 Salzburg recital, takes pride of place among them all. It is the most consistently wondrous and perfect of any lieder recital I have ever heard. Her voice never sounded fresher, clearer, lighter, freer, truer, or more flexible and responsive. The energy never flags or overreaches. The emotion never takes a false step. Given the extraordinary variety of emotion and rhetorical stance in these songs, that is saying quite a lot.