An ideal complement to the Vier letzte Lieder conducted by Kurt Masur (not to be missed), this album of 20 Lieder by Richard Strauss is to be enjoyed at leisure. With an impressive command of the German language, Jessye Norman also knows how to vary the styles of her vignettes, passing from intimate folk song to the great operatic stage.
The range of this exceptional voice takes in all the contrasts with a peerless artistic style. In Geoffrey Parsons, Ms Norman found a performer who could modulate his piano to always find the right tones and colours, with a great sense for the voluptuous and the poetic.
These 20 Lieder recorded in 1986 defy classification into any sort of order. They are painstakingly-polished gems that win the audience over with their refinement of expression, their power, their control. The measure of this record lies in its endurance: it stands up to listen after listen, a bit like the feeling one has upon emerging from an exceptional concert, knowing that it will live on forever as a cherished memory. © François Hudry/Qobuz