Wolf: Morike & Goethe Lieder

Barbara Hendricks (Artist), Hugo Wolf (Composer), Roland Pontinen (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Roland Pontinen
• Composer: Hugo Wolf
• Audio CD (January 9, 2001)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Angel Records / EMI Classics
• ASIN: B00004XMWP
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #517,241 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. 20. Auf Eine Christblume I (Tochter Des Walds)

2. 21. Auf Eine Christblume II (Im Winterboden Schlaft)

3. 45. Nixe Binsefuss

4. 25. Schlafendes Jesuskind

5. 2. Der Knabe Und Das Immlein

6. 8. Begegnung

7. 24. In Der Fruhe

8. 15. Auf Einer Wanderung

9. 12. Verborgenheit

10. 9. Nimmersatte Liebe

11. 7. Das Verlassene Magdlein

12. 17. Der Gartner

13. 36. Lebe Wohl

14. 6. Er Ist's

15. 28. Fruhling Ubers Jahr

16. 50. Ganymed

17. 26. Die Sprode

18. 27. Die Bekehrte

19. 5. Mignon I (Heiss Mich Nicht Reden)

20. 6. Mignon II (Nur Wer Die Sehnsucht Kennt)

See all 23 tracks on this disc

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Wolf sung for beauty and melody, September 6, 2011

By 

Santa Fe Listener (Santa Fe, NM USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Wolf: Morike & Goethe Lieder (Audio CD)

John Steane, a fair and authoritative critic of singing at the Gramophone, dismissed this Wolf album from Barbar Hendricks when it was released in 2001. His chief complaint was that the moody, intense, shifting idiom of Hugo Wolf requires a response that the singer doesn't provide. He gave detailed reasons, with examples, of how she falls short. But in the back of my mind I kept wondering if Steane didn't hear a master of Wolf singing like Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Dietrich Fischer-Diskau, who carried sensitivity to the text to a kind of ultimate. Precious few survive that comparison, and I don't think Hendricks tries to. It's worth remembering that both of her great predecessors have been accused quite often of micro-managing the songs they sang.

Hendricks gives us these mostly familiar Wolf lieder, the great bulk from the Morike and goethe collections, as beautiful melodies. She bypasses psychological depth and musical nuance in favor of a lyrical line that, frankly, she delivers with great charm. I think hers is the lightest voice I've ever encountered in these songs, and no doubt Steane is right to point out her lack of power. Hendricks was 52 when the recordings were made; age tends to markedly diminish a voice as fragile as hers. I don't mean to imply that she needs special pleading. If I hadn't read the dates, I would easily have guessed that she was in her thirties or forties. And thanks to her devotion to art songs - for which, I think, Hendricks is greatly under-appreciated in America - the shaping of each lied is assured and skillful.

The accompanist, Roland Pontinen, is skillful, too. We need more like him in lieder recitals, and I have no quibbles with the decision he makes to reduce the volume of his piano playing in keeping with the singer's timbre. At times, as in the rhapsodic "Er ists," that the performance is considerably too restrained and even cautious, as if Hendricks knows she can't go beyond a certain limit given the condition of her voice. On the other hand, there are many experienced listeners who dislike Schwarzkopf for cooing and Fishcer-Dieskau for barking, so this collection may be just the substitute they are looking for.