MENDELSSOHN : Songs and Duets (Sophie Daneman • Nathan Berg • Eugene Asti) (1998) FLAC (image+.cue) lossless

The latest research indicates that at least one hundred-and-six lieder, thirteen vocal duets and sixty part-songs by Mendelssohn have survived. Yet even during an age characterized by an apparently insatiable desire for the musically obscure and neglected, these impeccably crafted microcosms are rarely encountered in the concert hall where Schubert, Schumann, Brahms and Wolf (even Liszt by musical association) continue to form the backbone of the Austro-German Romantic lieder tradition.
The main reason for this neglect is Mendelssohn's comparatively narrow emotional range. Whereas the aforementioned composers all fearlessly probed the dark side of the human psyche, for the peaceable, broadly contented and self-contained Mendelssohn such concerns simply lay outside his experience. Equally, his songs were above all intended to be sung and enjoyed around the piano at home rather than subjected to public scrutiny. It is hardly Mendelssohn's fault that (with the notable exception of Mozart) commentators generally share an irrational tendency to upgrade the value of music in which laughter emerges only through tears rather than the other way round. Hyperion    Tracklist & Credits :

MENDELSSOHN : Songs and Duets • 2 (Sophie Daneman • Stephan Loges • Eugene Asti) (2001) FLAC (image+.cue) lossless

'The most attractive programming of the Mendelssohn duets yet devised'. So said Fanfare of Sophie Daneman's entrancing first disc of Mendelssohn songs and duets recorded with Nathan Berg (CDA66906). That disc was so well received when it was issued in spring 1998 that we have now produced a second in which she is partnered by the outstanding winner of the Wigmore Hall Song Competition, baritone Stephan Loges, accompanied as before by the American Eugene Asti.
Like the first disc there are many rare and previously unrecorded items here. Hyperion
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MENDELSSOHN : Songs and Duets • 3 (Sophie Daneman • Stephan Loges • Eugene Asti) (2003) FLAC (image+.cue) lossless

Eugene Asti and his dedicated team of singers present us with an engaging recital of twenty-six songs and duets from the Mendelssohn stable. This collection includes settings of poetry by Goethe, Byron, Heine, Eichendorff and others; twenty songs are by Felix Mendelssohn—whose facility to charm is perfectly exploited in such a medium—with Fanny Mendelssohn demonstrating in the remaining six an extraordinary and striking talent, quite the match of her younger sibling.
The Mendelssohn songs without words may indeed outshine the Lieder in our contemporary consciousness, but here we find domestic bliss in pure musical form.
The first two volumes in this ongoing series have been warmly received around the world. Hyperion    Tracklist & Credits :

MENDELSSOHN : Songs and Duets • 4 (Katherine Broderick • Stephan Loges • Eugene Asti) (2009) FLAC (image+.cue) lossless

Mendelssohn seems to have finally hit the big league in this bicentenary year of his birth. Critical reappraisals of his music have confirmed this somewhat elusive composer as an important Romantic figure, and probably the greatest child prodigy of all time. Hyperion’s contribution to the composer’s rehabilitation includes the acclaimed series of Songs and Duets, now reaching Volume 4.

It is remarkable to realize that compositions by a major composer in the Western canon could go unpublished and unheard for more than 150 years, but that was the sad situation with Mendelssohn—until recently. The pianist Eugene Asti has gathered together 46 previously unknown songs from various stages of this composer’s sadly truncated life. Through much of the previous century, his songs were often judged against the example of Schubert, Schumann, and Brahms and found wanting, but Mendelssohn’s aesthetic of song was very different from those of his contemporaries. What the newly published works reveal is a willingness to experiment with novel song forms and highly expressive harmonies, some of which go beyond the graceful and vocally grateful melodies, limpid textures, and strophic forms for which he is best known.

For this disc, Eugene Asti has gathered together a dazzling selection of singers, including some of the most exciting young artists working today. Katherine Broderick, the winner of the coveted 2007 Kathleen Ferrier Prize, has a uniquely beautiful voice, its bloom and agility belying its considerable power. Hyperion
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MENDELSSOHN : Songs and Duets • 5 (Katherine Broderick • Stephan Loges • Eugene Asti) 2CD (2010) FLAC (image+.cue) lossless

Eugene Asti’s pioneering Mendelsson Songs and Duets series, containing a large number of first recordings and rarities, concludes with this fifth volume, a generous two CDs for the price of one. The contents range from Mendelssohn’s first extant composition of any kind – a birthday song presented to his father by the precocious ten-year-old composer – to settings of the German romantic poets Schiller, Goethe and Eichendorff, which place Mendelssohn firmly in the canon of the great Lieder composers.

These works are performed by a talented group of young singers who will be familiar from other discs in the series, including the winner of the 2008 Kathleen Ferrier prize, Katherine Broderick. Hyperion   Tracklist & Credits :