Wolfgang Holzmair and Imogen Cooper’s lieder partnership is the stuff of dreams and their traversal of the Schumann repertoire has won them international plaudits both for performance as well as the sound engineering on these Philips recordings. Here, brought together for the first time as a collection, is their complete traversal of a vast selection of Robert Schumann’s lieder, including all the cycles – the two sets of ‘Liederkreis‘, the ‘Kerner Lieder’ and ‘Dichterliebe’. Included too are individual songs to poems by Heine and Rückert, as well as a selection of ‘Myrthen’. Two songs, ‘Rose, Meer und Sonne’, Op. 37 No. 9 and ‘Aus den östlichen Rosen’, Op. 25 No. 25, only appeared previously as part of an Imogen Cooper anthology and are here included to well and truly complete the duo’s Schumann survey.
ROBERT SCHUMANN
Dichterliebe, Op. 48
Liederkreis, Op. 24
Liederkreis, Op. 39
12 Gedichte, Op. 35 (Kerner Lieder)
Rückert Lieder
Heine Lieder
Myrthen (selection)
Wolfgang Holzmair, baritone
Imogen Cooper, piano
“One of the great living partnerships in song” The Times (London)
“I was transfixed by the sheer artistry … Rarely have I heard so sensitive, intelligent and gloriously musical a partnership.” […] “… no one could have asked for more attentive, detailed expressions nor more complete harmony of feeling between singer and pianist” The Independent (London)
“Singer and pianist work together almost by instinct in thinking themselves into the very heart of these songs … Holzmair’s plangent‚ very Viennese voice bespeaks the vulnerability that lies at the soul of Robert’s Eusebius side‚ heard to mesmeric effect in the great‚ slower songs of Op 35‚ but he is just as capable of tramping the ways with Schumann when he is in his Florestan mood. … [Imogen Cooper’s] playing throughout the programme is at once supportive of her partner and individual in itself. The recording is faultless.” Gramophone