Grammy 2020 : Best classical solo vocal album -ehdokas.

Presto Recording of the Week
19th April 2019

Matthias Goerne (bass-baritone), Leif Ove Andsnes (piano)

In the miraculous year of 1840, which Schumann began in despair, forcibly separated from Clara by her father, he composed nearly 150 lieder, including the two outstanding cycles presented here, based respectively on poems by the great Heine (the Liederkreis op.24) and by Justinus Kerner (the twelve Kernerlieder op.35).

Haunted from beginning to end by Romantic Nature, in the hands of two such outstanding artists as Matthias Goerne and Leif Ove Andsnes these two masterpieces invite us, performers and listeners alike, to share a state of transcendence, a heightened consciousness that transports us directly to the heart of lived experience itself.

"The past few years have brought several outstanding recordings of the latter cycle from lyric baritones, but Goerne’s darker, rougher-hewn instrument sheds an entirely different light on these songs of love, loss and exile...And though Goerne can be mightily impressive in declamatory mode, he still commands a matchless legato…Andsnes is noisily exuberant in the ‘Wanderer’ songs, gleefully aware that he’s never going to be in any danger of overwhelming this particular partner." - Katherine Cooper, Presto Classical, 19th April 2019.