Brahms Lieder Anna Lucia Richter (soprano), Ammiel Bushakevitz (piano) Pentatone PTC 5186 986 58:08 mins
It takes a brave soul to release an all-Brahms song recording – Brahms himself discouraged the performance of more than a few of his songs in a concert – but Anna Lucia Richter and Ammiel Bushakevitz do such a fine job, surely even he would have approved. Mostly established favourites from both the art- and folksongs, the programme is nicely linked by harmonic and textural relationships.
The lower female voice was Brahms’s favourite vocal type, and Richter’s has a warmly sensual sound which is multidimensional without heaviness, with impressively effortless breath control. Together with Bushakevitz’s expressive, energetic and flexible piano-playing, on a bright, active instrument, they make delightful musical chemistry, jointly crafting confident, exuberant characters in compelling technicolour performances.
They take risks, too, for example with an extraordinarily, sublimely slow and sultry opening to the erotic ‘Unbewegte laue Luft’. Not all will be persuaded, but I was. The minor-key folksongs achieve heart-rending plangency, but also humour and defiance. The urgent, clattery mother-daughter dialogue ‘Liebestreu’ offers insights into both characters’ emotional worlds. The elusive ‘Geheimnis’ feels perfectly paced and dreamlike.
These musicians have a dynamic understanding of text, and find the right balance between architectural sweep, fidelity to notated details and freedom, imagination and flexibility. While they offer no repertoire discoveries, this is a fine and persuasive account, with excellent liner notes by Richter herself, and generous recorded sound.
Natasha Loges
