R STRAUSS songs

Waldseligkeit, Op 49 No 1. Die Nacht, °pi° No 3 Standchen, Op 17 No 6. Leises Lied, Op 39 No 1. Schlechtes Wetter, Op 69 No S. Des Dichters Abendgang, Op 47 No 2. Der Stern, Op 69 No 1. Die Verschwiegenen, Op 10 No 6. Die Zeitlose, Op 10 No 7. Blauer Sommer, Op 31 No 1. Ich wollt em n Strausslein binden, Op 68 No 2. Ruhe, meine Seele!, Op 27 No 1. Allerseelen, Op 10 No 8. Einerlei, Op 69 No 3. Meinem Kinde, Op 37 No 3. Wiegenlied, Op 41 No 1. Muttertandelei, Op 43 No 2. Zueigmung, Op 10 No 1. Winterweihe, Op 48 No 4. Das Rosenband, Op 36 No 1. Cacilie, Op 27 No 2. Ach, was Kummer, Qua! und Schmerz,en, Op 49 No 8. Drei Lieder Der Ophelia, Op 67. Morgen!, Op 27 No 2.

Dame Felicity Lott sopr Graham Johnson pft

Recorded by Julian Millard, remastered by Alexander van Ingen

ChampsHill CHRCD037 (72 minutes: DDD) Originally released on ASV [Amazon c. £8]

A lovely disc of Strauss song from the sympathetic environment of Champs Hill in Sussex, one which had me amazed by its quality until I discovered that it was actually recorded a decade ago; Felicity Lott in good voice during three enjoyable working days February 2002, I'd guess...

Some of the songs are quite rare, and for many of the translations it is gratifying to note that the producers turn to Emily Ezust, whose website so often comes to the rescue !

The programme is well balanced and the presentation is immaculate, with bold black print on glossy white paper; easy to read!

Recommended, and at c. £8 from Amazon, excellent value.

Peter Grahame Woolf

Original review in Gramophone by Alan Blyth
ASV CDDCA1155 Another attractive disc from this well-attuned, experienced partnership. Lott and Johnson again put us in their debt with a disc full of insights - in his 1918 settings of some of Ophelia's wandering thoughts, performed near the end of the disc, Strauss caught very precisely in voice and piano Ophelia's lunatic state of mind, and his interpreters offer a performance of answering empathy. After that as an envoi, the seemingly timeless Morgen, to which Dame Felicity brings just the right serene yet plaintive tone. Throughout she seemsto be defying the years in her clear, beautiful singing, something near ideal for Strauss. - - Lott is not only well suited by the character of songs expressly written for a female singer, such as Meinem Kinde, Wiegenlied and Muttertandele, but also brings to them all her gifts of enfolding sound, where she needs fear no comparison with either other singers or her younger self, and where her partner is at his fluent best. Alan Blyth
(Alan Blyth's Obituary of Fischer-Dieskau was published in The Guardian last weekend; Blyth died in 2007)