Matthias Goerne Schubert Edition 2: An mein Herz

"Volume two, and Goerne gives us performances of profound grandeur, mystery and compassion. This volumes by some way betters the first (and that was good). Remaining is the mellifluous, deep-centred voice - always easy to get addicted to - but here he also finds an attractive husky quality. Emotionally too, he is more varied, revealing patches of light as well as shade."
Editor's Choice - Gramophone Magazine (December 2008)

"How times have changed in the classical record business since Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau recorded his not quite comprehensive "complete" Schubert Lied editions in the 1970s. Goerne used to record for Decca, but it apparently had no interest in his 12-volume Schubert compendium, so the less ruthlessly commercial Harmonia Mundi comes to the rescue, for which the France-based company deserves the highest praise. From a vocal point of view, few male singers, even Fischer-Dieskau, command such a rich palette of colours as Goerne does here: he is resplendent in the sublime, hymn-like Du bist die Ruh, and An die Musik - the most familiar songs on the first disc - even if he can't match the intensity of Dieskau's storytelling and diction in a narrative ballad such as Über Wildemann. On the second disc, devoted to Mayrhofer and Goethe settings, he goes where Dieskau never ventured: he includes two of Mignon's songs, Heiss' mich nicht reden and Nur wer die Sehnsucht kennt, as well as the Harper trilogy. We live in a more gender-bendy age - Goerne is a rare male interpreter of Schumann's Frauenliebe und Leben (A Woman's Love and Life), whose words, of course, were written by a man - and these are beautifully considered performances. In the middle Harper song, Mayrhofer's Nachtstück and Nähe des Geliebten (Nearness of the Beloved), Goerne approaches the sublime and captures perfectly the wry wit of Goethe's sly dig at water-nymphery, Der Fischer, in which the surprise encounter of an angler with a "moist woman" is wryly underlined by Schubert. Luxury support from Deutsch and Schneider sets the seal on an outstanding issue."
Hugh Canning
The Sunday Times