The Songs of Brahms, Vol. 4 (2012)

Robert Holl Sings Brahms Lieder

The pianist and scholar of classical song, Graham Johnson, is in the process of recording the complete songs of Brahms on the Hyperion label. The Brahms series will accompany Johnson's complete cycles of Schubert, Schumann, Faure, and others. Each CD in this series, as in the past series, features a different highly renowned singer, offering the opportunity to explore beautiful songs from a variety of perspectives. The volume under review is the fourth of the Brahms series and features bass-baritone Robert Holl. This was the first I have heard Holl: he has many recordings of Schubert lieder, and one prior recording of Brahms lieder, to his credit. He also sings Wagnerian opera.

Holl has a deep beautiful voice that has a wide range. Many of the songs on this CD feature sudden, difficult shifts to a high almost falsetto register and Holl handles these shifts smoothly. Most of the songs are taken at a slow tempo which suits the low voice. The songs are predominantly sad and melancholic with themes of impending death, lost love, and nostalgia. The lyrical melodic line in the songs frequently is combined with dense, multi-voiced and harmonically shifting writing for the piano. Holl and Johnson make a musically intimate partnership on this recording.

The CD includes 24 songs, some of which are individual and some of which are grouped. The highlight of the recital is the performance of one of Brahms' last compositions, the "Vier Ernste Gesange", opus 121. This is a series of four songs, with Brahms perhaps reflecting on his own illness or upon the recent death of Clara Schumann. Brahms selected and set texts from Ecclesiastes and First Corinthians. These are difficult, moving, passionate songs on the bittersweet transience of life and on release in death.

Another complete set is the five lieder of opus 94 for low voice, which the composer seemed to expect to be performed as a unit by a single singer. (This is not the case for most of the single opus numbers that include several songs.) Each of these songs is likewise slow and melancholy as the middle-aged protagonist reflects on death, the evanescence of youth, and of failed opportunities for romance. A third set of related songs on this CD includes the three nostalgic works titled "Heimweh" -- longing for home, which Brahms gathered as part of his opus 63.

For listeners with some background in Brahms' songs, this CD includes some of his greatest lieder including "Your Blue Eyes","Old Love", "O cool forest" the "Sapphic Ode", and "Like Melodies" -- a song about music and composition similar in some ways to Schubert's "An die Musik".

Besides the music and the performances, Graham Johnson's lieder recordings feature extensive book-length program notes. The 35-page booklet accompanying this CD includes texts and translations of each poem Brahms set together with lengthy literary and musical annotations of each song. Johnson's discussion emphasizes the influence of Schubert's songs on Brahms and on similarities and differences in their styles. The booklet offers listeners the opportunity to explore the songs individually, slowly, and in depth. It is an invaluable resource for listeners seriously interested in lieder.

For many lovers of music, Brahms' songs are the least-familiar part of his output. The songs are deeply crafted, mostly sad, and lyrical. They offer a more intimate, personal music than Brahms allowed himself in his larger compositions. My understanding and love for this music has deepened through the recordings in this series. I look forward to the continuation of this complete cycle of Brahms songs and the accompanying booklets.

Listeners who want to listen closely to Brahms songs or who are passionate about lieder will love this recording and the musical collaboration between Holl and Johnson.

Total Time: 76:06

Robin Friedman