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The second thing was how well the music is served by this sensitive and intimate performance – an almost ideal Lieder performance, to my ears. I enjoyed much of the word-painting from Per Vollestad and felt that he was really selling the story. Also, without too much weight in the voice, this feels much more of a young man's journey than others I have heard. Occasionally, in his lightening of certain words, I felt a lack of support which made the higher notes sound a little on the flat side of comfortable, but this was a rare occurence. One thing that did strike me as odd was a misreading on a couple of verses in the opening song (1st verse: Das muss ein schlechter Müller sein – the second note on Müller is printed C not D in Bärenreiter, which this recording claims to use) and there are a couple of other minor variants elsewhere which again made me sit up and take notice. There was an interesting Norwegian “flavour” to the odd vowel now and again. Apart from that, the diction is wonderfully clear. Per Vollestad is wonderfully supported by his partner, Liv Glaser, who produces an enormous palate of tone-colours from the fortepiano. Highlights for me include the use of the moderator in Tränenregen and the almost infinite variations of the opening verses. Because of the fortepiano's softer volume, when it is allowed to open out, as in Ungeduld, it is never in danger of drowning the voice, but yet never sounds held back - the bass of the instrument produces as thunderous heroism as could be required. Again, there are minor slips (listen particularly to the occasionally inaccurate extreme bass notes of the opening song) which I'm very surprised weren't edited out, as this is certainly not a live performance. However, such things have only begun to bother me on repeated listening and it is the overall sound and performance which have made this so attractive to me – and encouraged me to play this disc a number of times. I am still particularly struck by how even and well-tuned the instrument is. For the doubter who needs convincing that lieder composers of the first Viennese School sound better on original instruments with an appropriately sensitive voice, this is the disc to prove it. With the odd minor reservation, all other lieder enthusiasts are warmly recommended to buy this recording. Steven Devine See Per Vollestad's other recordings: http://www.vollestad.com/Lieder%20sanger.html and Liv Glaser in Grieg, Clementi and Mozart on Musical Pointers
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Franz Schubert: Die Schöne Müllerin D.795