Search - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Franz Joseph Haydn, Julius Drake :: Mozart and Haydn: Lieder

Lovely

Larry VanDeSande | Mason, Michigan United States | 03/13/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Here is very nice singing and stylish enunciation by the lesser known of the Genz brothers, tenor Christoph. Genz does a fine job with the not well known Mozart songs and uses spotless English in Haydn's two books of original canzonettas. Many famous tenors and baritones have recorded these songs but few with the inate sense of projection, style and timing Genz brings to the music. Unlike some of the bigger names that have recorded the 12 canzonettas, Genz consciously projects the songs as what they are -- light entertainment, not earth-shattering or vehilces to plumb the depths of the human experience ala Schubert or Mahler. Though I have owned the more critically acclaimed versions by Holzmaier and James Griffett, I have gotten the greatest satisfaction from Haydn's English songs through these interpretations. Genz's tenor is light and airy that, combined with colloquial English and excellent diction, makes this a pleasurable listening experience over and over again. Julius Drake is not the most persuasive accompanist but his work is fine. Twenty-seven pages of notes, biographies and text in English and German will help you understand this music if it is new to you. If you enjoy this CD Genz more recently recorded 16 Schubert songs to poems of Leitner and Seidl on Naxos 8.554796. While the songs are not top drawer Schubert, the experince by Genz is equally as rewarding as this Mozart and Haydn disk."