MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Schubert: Songs (Songs orchestrated by: Berlioz-Britten-Brahms-Liszt-Offenbach-Reger-Webern )

"There have been other recordings of Schubert's Lieder dressed up for orchestra, but they're outclassed by this new collection.
Claudio Abbado draws some delicious playing from the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, with graceful woodwind playing and the sweetest of strings.
This CD has not been out of my car stereo for a week and, when one drives upwards of 400km over seven days, you can't have a firmer recommendation than that."
- William Dart. NZ Herald May 2003

"Von Otter remains one of the most searching, verbally aware of Lieder interpreters. Quasthoff, with his warm noble baritone, is just as compelling. Abbado is a near-ideal accompanist, alive to any special felicities of scoring but always considerate to his singers."
- ***** Five Stars (Pick of the Month) BBC Music Magazine (July 2003)

The product of (separate) concerts at Paris's Cité de la Musique last spring, this album is the fruit of an idea Claudio Abbado had several years ago in Salzburg with Anne Sofie von Otter and Thomas Quasthoff, juxtaposing reinterpretations of favourite Schubert Lieder by distinguished composers.

The order on the CD reflects that of the concerts, with an "encore" by each of the singers.

The composer-arrangers featured are Brahms, Britten, Reger, Webern and Berlioz, whose late arrangement of Erlkönig, sung by Anne Sofie, can be counterposed with Reger's version, sung by Thomas Quasthoff. Both singers, indeed, rise to the occasion in exploring the various approaches of the composers to the different sound-worlds of the Schubert Lieder.

The Chamber Orchestra of Europe, close collaborators of Claudio Abbado, make the ideal partners for this occasion.