Two of the world’s most seasoned Schubertians, both long associated with Wigmore Hall, come together for Wigmore Hall Live. Schubert’s late-Romantic successor as the Austrian master of the art song, Hugo Wolf, is the focus for the baritone Wolfgang Holzmair, a native of Upper Austria, and the British pianist Imogen Cooper, whose training included a period in Vienna studying with Paul Badura-Skoda, Jörg Demus and Alfred Brendel. This recording comprises 26 of the 53 lieder that Wolf wrote on the poems of Eduard Mörike, born just seven years after Schubert in 1804, but outliving the composer nearly five decades.
“Rarely have I heard so sensitive, intelligent and gloriously musical a partnership. No-one could have asked for more attentive, detailed expressions nor more complete harmony of feeling between singer and pianist … I was transfixed by the sheer artistry.”
“Two qualities distinguish the singing of Wolfgang Holzmair - he has the exact measure of his light, high baritone, breathing freely, without a moment of strain, so that the voice can really sing. And his performances have possibly the closest focus of any baritone of his generation: imagination and intelligence have clearly worked long on every word, its placing and its tone of voice.”
