Thomas E. Bauer - Liederkreis Op 3 - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Pulitzer Prize-winner and MacArthur fellow John Harbison has composed a Requiem for our times- a moving choral work that incorporates the composer's distinctive sensibilities while drawing deeply on the tradition of Latin sacred music. Completed in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, Harbison's Requiem is full of dramatic passages from singers and musicians alike, with abundant opportunities for vocal soloists, brass and percussion to shine. InchI wanted my piece to have a sense of the inexorability of the passage of time,Inch the composer says, Inchfor good and ill, of the commonality of love and loss.Inch Giancarlo Guerrero is the six-time Grammy-winning music director of the Nashville Symphony, music director of the Wroclaw Philharmonic in Poland, and principal guest conductor of the Gulbenkian Orchestra in Lisbon, Portugal. A passionate proponent of new music, he has championed a number of America's most respected composers through recordings, commissions, and eight world premieres with the Nashville Symphony, including the Grammy-winning recording of Michael Daugherty's Tales of Hemingway.

Thomas E. Bauer - Liederkreis Op 24 [COMPACT DISCS] date 04/19/2005

The impeccable ensemble singing of Thomas E. Bauer and Susanne Bernhard is the finest element in this beautiful recording. It makes one wish for the inclusion of all the part-songs from the Minnespiel, requiring up to four voices, but perhaps we have that to look forward to as the Naxos Schumann series progresses. The next finest element is the stylish playing of Uta Hielscher. Her tone is consistently beautiful, and the phrasing as close to ideal as one finds. Bauer also spins a free-flowing Schumann phrase, due in part to his excellent technical schooling, and whatever reservations one might have about the performances-for example, that the folk song quality of many of the op. 37 songs is lost, or that his diction tends to be somewhat exaggerated, or that his ardor seems slightly forced-these works come to wonderful life through his singing. Susanne Bernhard's bright voice and style seem more suited to the genre of operetta than Lieder, and one finds that her performance of the songs of the frail and enigmatic Mignon does not prove very deep or very convincing. It is interesting that so many great (and not so great) composers have put music to InchNur wer die Sehnsucht kennt,Inch but almost none of them has set it as a duet between Mignon and her father, the harper, as it appears in the novel. Over all, the repertoire presented on this disc gives the impression of having been learned rather than lived and learned, but the musical standards are high, and one can, as it were, fill in the blanks. Bauer may well develop into one of our most notable artists.