Johannes Brahms - Lieder (Bernarda Fink)

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Composer: Johannes Brahms

1. Lieder, Op. 95: 2. Bei dir sind meine Gedanken
2. Lieder, Op. 105: 1. Wie Melodien zieht es mir
3. Lieder, Op. 94: 4. Sapphische Ode
4. Lieder, Op. 86: 2. Feldeinsamkeit
5. Lieder, Op. 97: 1. Nachtigall
6. Lieder, Op. 72: 4. Verzagen
7. Lieder, Op. 72: 1. Alte Liebe
8. Lieder, Op. 46: 4. An die Nachtigall
9. Lieder, Op. 107: 3. Das Mädchen spricht
10. Lieder, Op. 59: 8. Dein blaues Auge
11. Lieder, Op. 71: 3. Geheimnis
12. Lieder, Op. 106: 1. Ständchen
13. Lieder, Op. 43: 1. Von ewiger Liebe
14. Lieder, Op. 96: 1. Der Tod, das ist die kühle Nacht
15. Lieder, Op. 105: 4. Auf dem Kirchhofe
16. Lieder, Op. 43: 2. Die Mainacht
17. Lieder, Op. 7: 3. Anklänge
18. Lieder, Op. 6: 1. Spanisches Lied
19. Lieder, Op. 95: 6. Mädchenlied
20. Lieder, Op. 49: 1. Am Sonntag Morgen
21. Lieder, Op. 3: 1. Liebestreu
22. Lieder, Op. 84: 4. Vergebliches Ständchen
23. Lieder, Op. 95: 1. Das Mädchen
24. Lieder, Op. 86: 1. Therese
25. Lieder, Op. 107: 5. Mädchenlied
26. Lieder, Op. 95: 4. Der Jäger
27. Lieder, Op. 19: 4. Der Schmied
28. Lieder, Op. 48: 1. Der Gang zum Liebchen
29. Lieder, Op. 47: 3. Sonntag
30. Lieder, Op. 85: 3. Mädchenlied
31. Lieder, Op. 49: 4. Wiegenlied

Bernarda Fink, mezzo-soprano
Roger Vignoles, piano

Date: 2007
Label: Harmonia Mundi
http://www.harmoniamundi.com/#!/albums/1134

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Review

In heartbreak or happiness, this distinctive singer is a delight in Brahms

‘Bei dir sind meine Gedanken’, one of Brahms’s happiest songs, makes an inviting aperitif. Buoyed by the evanescent shimmer of Roger Vignoles’s accompaniment, Bernarda Fink is all confiding eagerness, phrasing deftly and gracefully, and showing a natural feeling for Brahmsian rubato. One would expect Fink’s warm, luminous mezzo, flecked by darker, deeper tints, to be near ideal for, say, the nostalgia of ‘Alte Liebe’ or the many songs of elegiac loss and heartbreak, all touchingly done here. But having thought of her as an essentially ‘serious’ singer, dignified, eloquent, the vivacity and ‘face’ she brings to ‘Bei dir sind meine Gedanken’ and other lighter songs is sheer delight. 

‘Ständchen’, here more sunlit than moonlit, is charmingly characterised, with an affectionate caress on the dreaming girl’s ‘Vergiss nicht mein’. Fink is playfully coquettish without archness in the delicious ‘Spanisches Lied’, and sings ‘Vergebliches Ständchen’ with an outgoing boldness and witty touches of timing – and the tender lingering on the penultimate ‘Mein Knab’ suggests that the boy’s luck may soon be about to change.

Other singers have brought a more intense yearning to ‘Die Mainacht’ and found greater mystery amid the slumberous balm of ‘Feldeinsamkeit’. But Fink’s flowing performances, sensitively shaped and inflected, are never less than satisfying. It is good to be reminded, too, that, for all its melancholy, ‘Die Mainacht’ is also a song of spring, suffused by warm major-key harmonies, with a hint of excited anticipation at the line ‘Wann, o lächelndes Bild’. On the face of it, Fink’s lyric mezzo would seem to be on the light side for ‘Von ewiger Liebe’. But with Vignoles imaginatively ‘orchestrating’ the keyboard part, she gives a finely graded, deeply moving performance, vividly contrasting the contained passion of the boy’s words with the girl’s gentle candour. The glowing climactic avowal of eternal love is truly overwhelming, setting the seal on a Brahms recital of rare distinction.

-- Richard Wigmore, Gramophone

More reviews:
ClassicsToday  ARTISTIC QUALITY: 9 / SOUND QUALITY: 10
http://www.classical-music.com/review/brahms-256
http://www.operatoday.com/content/2010/08/brahms_lieder_b.php
http://www.allmusic.com/album/brahms-lieder-mw0001400523
http://www.amazon.com/Brahms-Lieder-Bernarda-Fink/dp/B00C29HBC2

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Johannes Brahms (7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897) was a German composer and pianist. In his lifetime, Brahms's popularity and influence were considerable. Brahms composed for symphony orchestra, chamber ensembles, piano, organ, and voice and chorus. Many of his works have become staples of the modern concert repertoire. An uncompromising perfectionist, Brahms destroyed some of his works and left others unpublished. Brahms is often considered both a traditionalist and an innovator. His music is firmly rooted in the structures and compositional techniques of the Classical masters, with a highly romantic nature embedded within.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Brahms

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Bernarda Fink Inzko (born 29 August 1955 in Buenos Aires) is an Argentine mezzo-soprano. Fink studied at the "Instituto Superior de Arte del Teatro Colón" in Buenos Aires. She won First Prize at the Nuevas Voces Líricas competition in 1985 and then moved to Europe. Bernarda Fink has sung with many European leading orchestras and has performed under the baton of well-known conductors. She has performed at the opera houses and theaters all over the world and has recorded for Harmonia Mundi and Hyperion. Fink received the Austrian Decoration for Science and Art in 2005
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernarda_Fink

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