[Cover graphic]

Compact Disc CDA67130

£13.99

Graham Johnson takes time off from Schumann and French song to give us this glowing disc of all of Hugo Wolf Goethe settings suitable for female voice, some of which have rarely been recorded. The remarkable soprano Geraldine McGreevy sings them for us in her first solo CD (she has taken part in some of the Schumann recordings with Graham). The hundred-plus pages of the booklet (!) contain over 40,000 words of Graham's absorbing commentaries on the songs and his usual fascinating essays on their contemporary musical and social background.

Recorded on 1 October 1999 and 3 4 February 2000
Recording Engineers
ANTONY HOWELL
JULIAN MILLARD
Recording Producer
MARK BROWN
Language Coach
ANJA BOLKOW
Piano
STEINWAY & SONS
Front Design
TERRY SHANNON
Booklet Editor
TIM PARRY
Executive Producers
EDWARD PERRY
SIMON PERRY
© Hyperion Records Ltd, London, MMI

Duration: 75'43
DDD
Front illustration: Eros and Ganymede by Alfred Sacheverell Coke (fl.1869-1893)

Contents:

  1. Ganymed [5'49]
  2. Frühling übers Jahr [2'09]
  3. Der Schäfer [2'11]
  4. Blumengruss [1'36]
  5. Gleich und Gleich [0'59]
  6. Die Spröde [2'06]
  7. Die Bekehrte [3'05]
  8. Anakreons Grab [2'58]
  9. St Nepomuks Vorabend [2'20]
  10. Mignon I ('Heiss mich nicht reden') [3'14]
  11. Mignon II ('Nur wer die Sehnsucht kennt') [1'41]
  12. Mignon III ('So lasst mich scheinen') [4'22]
  13. Philine [3'17]
  14. Mignon ('Kennst du das Land') [6'53]
  15. Gutmann und Gutweib [5'25]
  16. Epiphanias [4'41]
  17. Dank des Paria [2'58]
  18. Gretchen vor dem Andachtsbild der Mater dolorosa [5'53]
  19. Als ich auf dem Euphrat schiffte [1'41]
  20. So lang man nüchtern ist [1'44]
  21. Nimmer will ich dich verlieren [1'11]
  22. Phänomen [2'15]
  23. Hoch beglückt in deiner Liebe [2'00]
  24. Wanderers Nachtlied ('Der du von dem Himmel bist') [3'00]
Sleeve Notes

'I wept for joy, I wept with grief, I laughed until the tears fell down – a significant proportion of Wolf's greatest work has been radiantly re-created for the age of digital. Highest recommendation, or hochbeglückt in diese Schallplatte!' (Fanfare, USA)

'Hyperion's exemplary devotion to the art of the German Lied continues with this fine recording' (The Sunday Times)

'The single most welcome element in this recital is Johnson's setting of a pace for each song which perfectly reconciles the demands of Wolf's minutely specific instructions with the character of McGreevy’s soprano … Revelatory' (BBC Music Magazine)

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