download hoge resolutie afbeelding download hoge resolutie afbeelding     Reviews of CD's, Channel Classics Records ~ KAROL SZYMANOWSKI - THE COMPLETE SONGS FOR VOICE AND PIANO ’SONGS OF SCHUMANN’  FRANZ SCHREKER - COMPLETE SONGS FOR VOICE AND PIANO, VOL. I & II OTTORINO RESPIGHI - COMPLETE SONGS FOR VOICE AND PIANO, VOL. I OTTORINO RESPIGHI - COMPLETE SONGS FOR VOICE AND PIANO, VOL. II EDWARD ELGAR - COMPLETE SONGS FOR VOICE AND PIANO, VOL. I KAROL SZYMANOWSKI - THE COMPLETE SONGS FOR VOICE AND PIANO Piotr Beczala, tenor Juliana Gondek, soprano Urszula Kryger, mezzo soprano Iwona Sobotka, soprano Reinild Mees, piano Channel Classics CCS 19398   Classical CD of the Week "Szymanowski (1882-1937) wrote songs from his early twenties until five years before his death. More than 120 make up this first integral edition. Of his four song cycles, the Love Songs of Hafiz (1911), to Hans Bethge’s paraphrases of the Arabic poet, Songs of the Fairy Princess (1915) and Songs of the Infatuated Muezzin (1918) make occasional appearances on the concert platform outside Szymanowski’s native Poland, but all too rarely. The songs of his early maturity (ardently sung by the rising tenor Piotr Beczala) owe stylistic debts to Strauss and Wolf, Wagner and Liszt. By his mid-twenties, he was appealing to the international market by setting poems by two of Strauss’s favourite authors, Dehmel and Bierbaum, and from the folk collection Des Knaben Wunderhorn. A visit to North Africa inspired his interest in Islamic culture, which surfaces in the exotic chromaticism of the Hafiz and Muezzin sets. The singing, by three of the composer’s compatriots and Juliana Gondek, an American of Polish descent, is uniformly stylish, with Mees a committed pianist." Four stars   The Sunday Times, August 29, 2004   "Five stars out of five" "(...)poised somewhere along the misty outskirts of 20th-century music is Karol Szymanowski, gentle lone wolf, dreamer and aesthete, someone who could conjure chords of transcendent beauty and suspend radiant melodies above them(...)" "(...)spending just a minute or two in the hypnotic company of, say, "The Song of the Wave" from the six Songs of the Fairy Princess (CD 4, track 5), with its darkly luminous harmonies, its echoes of Debussy and aromatic hints of the East, should be enough to convert anyone" "(...)soprano Iwona Sobotka holds us enthralled, just as tenor Piotr Beczala, soprano Juliana Gondek and mezzo Urszula Kryger had done on the first three discs. And yet so often the multi-shaded pianistic backdrops hold the most treasurable surprises, which is why pianist Reinild Mees is surely the real star of the show."   The Observer, July 2004   A fine set that shows how far and wide in mood this Polish songsmith roamed What a journey is on offer here. This set proposes a kind of luxury musical package-tour for the jet-set age – today expressionist Austria, tomorrow Slavic fantasy, the day after high-romanticism in Germany, and then away for a weekend in the exotic realms of the Near East. The different locales here just materialise out of thin air, colourful, fully formed, without a moment for the traveller to get bored on the way. Szymanowski’s song output is doubly intriguing – first, for those far-flung contrasts of style; second, because it is so little known. Half a lifetime of attending live recitals is unlikely to bring one into much contact with his songs, apart from the Songs of the Fairy Princess, which come round from time to time in their orchestral version. Of course, the Polish language is an issue, but this admirable set reminds us that there are also songs in German and even a James Joyce cycle in English. Four singers take part, one to each disc. Piotr Beczala is a light, poetic young tenor, who also has some passion up his sleeve. He is dreamily captivating in the early Six Songs of Op 2, where Fauré and Rachmaninov seem to be whispering ideas alternately over Szymanowski’s shoulders; catches well the change of tone to religious concentration in the Three Fragments by Jan Kasprowicz; and brings lyric beauty to the Schoenberg-inspired Op 13 settings. Soprano Juliana Gondek is less appealing. Her voice is a touch brittle for the sultry mood Szymanowski must have had in mind for the Songs of the Infatuated Muezzin and a bit more could be made of the words in the Joyce cycle. Yet there is still much to enjoy: why don’t the Bunte Lieder, with their Viennese air of cultured enjoyment, come round in recitals today ? The third disc introduces the sensitive singing of mezzo Urszula Kryger. She plunges straight into the swirling Tristanesque ecstasy of the Wagnerian Op 20 set with its embarrassingly overwritten poetry by Tadeusz Micinski (it must be tricky not to blush at a line like ‘In the gardens of your breasts apple trees (are) in blossom’). The glinting lights of the Orient return in Des Hafis Liebeslieder, another set of paraphrases by Hans Bethge to place beside Das Lied von der Erde, and the four songs of Op 41 then take us forward into more ambiguous and experimental terrain. The familiar Songs of the Fairy Princess promise a magical opening of the fourth disc in a winning performance by young Iwona Sobotka, a name to note. Here is a pure, steady, light soprano, who can flit up into the ledger lines where Stravinsky’s very similar Rossignol takes wing without a hint of shrillness. Sobotka is also interesting in the antique Polish songs of the Slopiewnie, Op 46 and makes a lively job of the miniature Children’s Rhymes of Op 49, even if a few of those go rather a long way. Through all of this the pianist, Reinild Mees, exhibits a faultness sense of atmosphere, whether delicately conjuring Oriental mystery or thundering up and down Lisztian octaves. Those who fight shy of more than an hour of Szymanowski might prefer Dorothy Dorow’s single-disc survey on Etcetera (1/92), but her edgy coloratura affords less enjoyment than this Channel Classics set. The adventurous traveller need look no further. Gramophone, November 2004   "Four stars out of five" "(...)this survey of his songs, all performed with great care and sensitivity by a quartet of Polish singers, opens up territory that will be unknown(...)" "(...)Reinild Mees is the accomplished pianist in this set" "(...)there are fascinating things to be discovered on all the discs; this is a genuinely important release"   The Guardian, July 2004 Read more reviews   ’SONGS OF SCHUMANN’ ( Liederkreis Op. 24, Kerner – Lieder Op.35 ) Jochen Kupfer, baritone Reinild Mees, piano Channel Classics CCS 13698     "I have no hesitation in saying that this is one of the most satisfying, finely executed discs of Schumann interpretation ever to come my way.(...) Above all, Kupfer and his equally admirable partner (playing a piano of Schumann's era) enter into the two facets of Schumann's psyche - his Florestan and Eusebius creations - heard here in immediate proximity, for instance, in Wanderung and Stille Liebe of Op 35, the first all brisk extroversion, the second all inward sorrow, moods perfectly caught in voice and piano(...)"   Gramophone, June 2000   "(...)Kupfer responds to both creators’ evocations of moods and places, singing with a beautiful line and in plaintive tones. He is subtly partnered by Mees, playing a piano of Schumann’s time. They are just as winning in the Kerner settings, balancing ideal retinence and boldness in their readings." Daily Telegraph, 29 April 2000       "The German baritone Juchen Kupfer is certainly one of the most gifted talents of the younger generation.(...) He is supported by the very sensitive accompaniment of pianist Reinild Mees: the two of them make an extraordinary strong duo in performing the “Songs of Schumann”. One can only be very enthousiastic at hearing this CD, after which the expectation of a big international career is definitely raised." Performance : excellent Recording : very good     LUISTER, May 2000 "Reinild Mees leads the baritone gently through different moods and emotions of the songs (...)" Fanfare   back to top   FRANZ SCHREKER - COMPLETE SONGS FOR VOICE AND PIANO, VOL. I & II Jochen Kupfer, baritone Ofelia Sala, soprano Sibille Ehlert, soprano Anne Buter, mezzo soprano Channel Classics CCS 12098, CCS 14398       "(...)Die durchweg jungen, sehr versierten Sänger haben erfreulich wenig Mühe mit ihren anspruchsvollen Partien; Reinild Mees unterstützt sie mit klangvoll-farbigen, aber stets sehr klarem Spiel." Interpretation : hervorragend Klang : hervorragend     FONO FORUM, April 2002   "(...) The modest, but excellent pianist Reinild Mees (...)" "(...) thirty masterpieces, mainly by the harmonically adventorous piano parts (...)" Luister, June 1998   "(...) this music earns definitely a much larger audience (...)" "(...) the listener will be amazed about the melodic qualities of the young Schreker (...)" "(...) after this most beautiful CD we are looking forward to the next one which will contain the riper works of Franz Schreker." Parool, June 1998 "(...) The singers, together with Reinild Mees, give extremely enjoyable, dreamy performances."   Trouw, June 1998   back to top OTTORINO RESPIGHI - COMPLETE SONGS FOR VOICE AND PIANO, VOL. I Leonardo de Lisi, tenor Reinild Mees, piano Channel Classics CCS 9396   "(...)Excellent contribution from Reinild Mees, who succeeds to make clear a pro-Debussy characteristic of the accompaniment without being too intrusive. If you want to notice the beautiful understanding between the two interpreters and their sound charms, you just need to listen to Notturno, with the piano divided between the glimmers of the high notes and the moving counterpart of the medium voices (...) Both musicians are excellently recorded."   Gramophone, June 1997   "(...) A highly convincing interpretation of these beautiful Respighi Songs by the very musical Italian tenor Leonardo de Lisi and the equally accomplished Dutch pianist Reinild Mees (...)"   Luister, May 1997   "(...) Accompanied by a magnificent professional, Dutch pianist Reinild Mees, De Lisi is able to bring out the real style of these songs. (....)" Interpretation: excellent Recording : excellent CD Classica, August 1997 "(...) One can dream away on the strongly romantic moods of Ottorino Respighi’s songs. The rich, lyric voice of Leonardo de Lisi, combined with the excellent playing of pianist Reinild Mees, makes the ideal couple for interpreting this beautiful repertoire. (...)"   NRC Handelsblad, March 1997 "(...) a warm and dedicated performance." American Record Guide, October 1997 "(...) De Lisi's warm voice, the perfect style and his musicality make this first collection a particularly important document, and let us hope for a great success of this project, for the very first time on CD." "(...) Reinild Mees is obviously as fond as de Lisi is. (...)" Diapason, June 1997   "Ottime il centributo della pianista Reinild Mees, che riesce a far emergere senza invadenze l'impostazione a tratti filodebussyana dell'accompagnamento. per accorgersi dell'intesa fra gli esecutori e del fascine sonoro che riescene a dispiegare setà sufficiente ascoltare Notturno, con il pianoforte diviso fra le indescenze del registro aculo e la commozione di un controcanto al registro medio, o la raccolta Deità Silvane, con l'instrecciarsi delle volute floreali canore ai disegni lussureggianti dello strumento."   Musica, May 1997   "(...) Accompagnement sensible de Reinild Mees. Un bon disque."   Répertoire, October 1997       OTTORINO RESPIGHI - COMPLETE SONGS FOR VOICE AND PIANO, VOL. II Andrea Catzel, soprano Leonardo de Lisi, tenor Reinild Mees, piano Channel Classics CCS 11998   "(...) Reinild Mees perfectly follows the singing lines, while bringing many colours, light and dark, into the music, and ‘singing’ on her piano (...)"   NRC Handelsblad, May 1998   "(...) Special attention is drawn to Reinild Mees who weaves her piano part into the voiceline in the most exquisite, delicate way."   Luister, September 1998 "(...) This CD is a must for all devoted Respighi admirers." Fanfare   "(...) So even if you think you know Respighi, get the Channel issue and be preprared for some surprises."   American Record Guide, September 1998           back to top