Heinrich Heine Lieder

"Florian Boesch is well equipped in these respects and has a wide range of dynamic and vocal colour, from the velvety piano and pianissimo to the bass-baritone's dark-tinted full voice which at will can take on a rasping demonic character. Like Fischer-Dieskau he can shift gear with quicksilver speed from soft to brutal and when it suits the dramatic situation he is willing to sacrifice the well-modulated tone for something rawer, more primitive. Warte, warte, wilder Schiffmann, number 6 of Liederkreis illustrates this clearly. The danger with a too well behaved approach is that a performance can be bland, even monotonous, however beautiful the singing is per se. None of the singers mentioned above ever fell into that trap and neither does Boesch - at least judging by what I have heard so far.

Lieder singing is not just a question of singing, it also needs good piano playing. Being a good accompanist requires great flexibility and an ability to adjust to different approaches. Ideally the singer and the pianist should have a relation on equal terms. Am I too loud? was the title of legendary accompanist Gerald Moore's memoirs but an equally relevant question should be 'Am I too recessed?' I have heard Malcolm Martineau on numerous occasions and he always seem to find the right balance. In the recording studio the producer and the balance engineer are also central components for the end result and in this case everything seems ideal. When one as listener doesn't reflect on balance, perspective and acoustics then all involved have done a good job."
(MusicWeb Recording of the Month May 2009)

"These are lieder performances of very high quality indeed."
(The Guardian May 1st 2009)

ONYX is proud to present an exceptional Schumann recital by the outstanding Austrian baritone Florian Boesch. The recital consists of the greatest Heine settings, the op24 Liederkreis, plus many of the great Romances and Ballads including Belshazzar (Belsatzar). Boesch is rapidly becoming known as one of the most truthfully dramatic lieder interpreters of our day, and made a sensational debut at the Edinburgh Festival in 2005 with Martineau.

Florian Boesch studied in Vienna with Robert Holl. In 2003 he made his operatic debut with Opernhaus Zürich as Papageno, and is now working with many of the world's greatest conductors including Gergiev, Bychkov, Harnoncourt, Herreweghe, Viotti and Adam Fischer.

Despite his opera work he is perhaps unusual in devoting much of his time to lieder with performances at London's Wigmore Hall, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Edinburgh Festival, Mozarteum Salzburg, Wiener Konzerthaus, Palais des Beaux-Arts Brussels, the Schubertiade Festival Schwarzenberg.