Schubert: Schwanengesang D957

Composed by Franz  Schubert

Philips / 442-460-2

Recorded 1995

'The chemistry of this recital is fine-tuned by Holzmair’s own fine vocal sensibility and Imogen Cooper’s sentient accompanying. Holzmair’s baritone is to be enjoyed like a light, fragrant wine: the distant, almost distracted humming of ‘Die Taubenpost’ and ‘Sehnsucht’ (‘Longing’) darkens effortlessly into ‘Warrior’s Foreboding’ through the finest shadings of vocal colour and tension; while rhythmic precision and snarling vowels build their own mighty weight for the world of anguish borne by ‘Der Atlas’ and staring through the eyes of ‘Der Doppelgänger’. 

Performance * * * * * Sound * * * * *

Hilary Finch, BBC Music Magazine