The Complete Songs Vol 4

Hyperion’s Strauss Lieder series is fast becoming a worthy successor to the seminal Schubert and Schumann Lieder sets on the label. This fourth volume features a veteran of these recordings, the great British baritone Christopher Maltman. Five songs are performed by the wonderfully versatile operatic bass Alastair Miles.

Contrary to a commonly held perception of Strauss as a Lieder composer, what most of the songs in the present volume show is that he was not shy of addressing serious themes. Settings of Rückert, Dehmel, Goethe and others are tinged with a dark regret which is enhanced by their bass tessitura. Strauss the opera composer is evident in the epic scale of the lieder written post-Salome. Roger Vignoles provides his famous extensive booklet notes, with commentary about each individual song and scholarly discourse on the poetry.



'Maltman has the lion's share, his molasses-rich lower range and walnut-polished upper melting into the ethereal Am Ufer and finding gruff humour in Das Lied des Steinkopfers. Alastair Miles' robust, sensitive bass excelts in Im Spätboot, perfectly capturing the eerie, dark atmosphere of Strauss's weary boat passenger' (The Times)

'Strauss is so closely associated with the soprano voice that it is useful to be reminded how his rhapsodically lyrical style can be beautifully suited to baritone and bass too … Both [Maltman and Miles] sing with great sensitivity and imaginative word-colouring' (The Daily Telegraph)

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Recording details: Various dates; All Saints, Durham Road, East Finchley, London, United Kingdom; Produced by Mark Brown; Engineered by Julian Millard; Release date: February 2009;