With a much applauded opera career behind her, Julia Kleiter is turning to Lieder. Her previous partnership with Prégardien in Wolf's Italienisches Liederbuch (Wolf: Italian Songbook - Prégardien / Kleiter / Dumno) now follows with her first solo Lieder disc. She is partnered by Michael Gees, whose creative pianism on other Challenge Challenge albums has also brought many plaudits. They set before us a brilliantly thought-out programme based on the long-held Romantic notion that in many aspects humankind still laments for a lost paradise. These sentiments were much explored by poets of the C19th, and taken up by many composers since, and are discussed in a short but enlightening essay by Gees about this album's contents.

The songs are arranged around Alban Berg's set of Seven Early Songs (1928): interposed between these are songs by R. Strauss, Mahler, Yrjö Kilpinen, Franz Schubert, Arnold Schönberg, Hugo Wolf and Hermann Hesse. Least-known of these composers is the Finn Kilpinen (1892–1959), whose total output of around 800 Lieder at one time had a world-wide circulation and a reputation just below that of Sibelius. However, during the Second World War Kilpinen developed friendships with the German national-socialistic authorities, which later caused his work to be nearly expunged from the lieder canon. However, the four excellent pieces here demonstrate his basic late Romantic style, but with some influences by Wolf and Berg. All this songs here have unusually vivid piano parts.

Kleiter and Gees form a formidable partnership here. Her intelligent readings of each composer's songs are very clearly based on her understanding of their underlying poetry and are characterised by her flexible lyric soprano, which has great expressive range and dynamic control. Her rapport with Gees is remarkable, shown very clearly in their novel "free improvisation" of Herman Hesse's "Sternklare Nacht", which is engaging and amusing and could easily be taken for a fully composed song. Gees brings alive the various vital preludes and postludes to the songs and spins his accompaniments often with magical effect.

It would be invidious to pick out individual songs, as the whole programme has a narrative sweep and pacing of tension which is compelling. I must, however, mention the rhapsodic and complex rhythms of Berg's 'The Nightingale"; a smiling, bright-eyed and very Wunderhorn-derived Mahler set and a simply gorgeous rendition of Strauss' 'Morgen'. To my mind, 'Morgen' is one of Richard Strauss' masterpieces. Both Kleiter and Gees radiantly capture the sense of expectant stillness in John Henry Mackay's verses, with Kleiter's sotto voce entry after the long piano introduction arriving as if overheard in mid-thought. This performance easily ranks with the best I have heard.

Perfectly placed to round off the programme comes another Strauss masterpiece; 'September' from the 'Four Last Songs'. These were scored for piano before orchestration, but we are most familiar with the multi-layered and highly complex instrumental tapestry which represents so many of the details of the poem. However, in a performance such as the present one, the voice gains a greater element of the song's import, while Gees manages to fill his piano part with as much expressive pianistic detail as possible. This too is a ravishing performance, and I suspect it will leave few listeners with dry eyes.

There is no need to dwell on Challenge's usual exemplary balance and richness of sound. The players are set in a spacious acoustic which doesn't interfere at all with the intimacy of their recital; it might as well be a live occasion in your music room. The disc comes in the back of a sturdy mini-book format, in German and English with Gees's aforementioned commentary and all texts thankfully rendered in a very easily-readable typeface size. Demonstrating careful and thoughtful production, there is even a half-moon cut on the lower edge of the disc envelope so that the disc can eased out of the upper indentation without touching the disc surface too much. All is cleanly and clearly laid-out, with B/W photographs of the musicians.

This is a remarkable, deeply-satisfying and deeply-moving lieder programme, which deserves the highest praise on all counts.

Copyright © 2013 John Miller and HRAudio.net

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