The Hyperion label has done well to organize its complete Liszt song cycle from the piano, with Julius Drake at the keyboard, rather than from the perspective of a single vocalist. This allows various vocal approaches and often works well, as here with tenor Allan Clayton in a group of songs mostly from the middle of Liszt's voluminous song production, and from the middle of the road in his selection of texts. A few songs are from his own circle, but the rest are by big names in German poetry -- Heine, Goethe, Uhland -- and ...
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The Hyperion label has done well to organize its complete Liszt song cycle from the piano, with Julius Drake at the keyboard, rather than from the perspective of a single vocalist. This allows various vocal approaches and often works well, as here with tenor Allan Clayton in a group of songs mostly from the middle of Liszt's voluminous song production, and from the middle of the road in his selection of texts. A few songs are from his own circle, but the rest are by big names in German poetry -- Heine, Goethe, Uhland -- and by Victor Hugo, represented by a set of French poems. The predominant mood is discursive and dissective, as if Liszt was trying to get beyond the simple surfaces of Heine's poems to get at the deep ambiguities underneath. There isn't great variety in the group of songs here, but Clayton has the chops to pull this off: he can hang out at the top of his range in difficult songs without breaking the meditative spell. The set announces its intentions at the beginning with two completely...
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