Sasha Cooke, Julius Drake - Liszt: The Complete Songs, Vol. 4 (2016)

The cycle of Liszt songs undertaken by pianist Julius Drake is unique in that it has featured a different singer for each of the four volumes recorded up to this one. Here the vocalist is the extraordinarily rich-shaded mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke, and this volume has outstripped the others commercially. That may be because word of Drake's talents is spreading, but it's possible that Cooke is the draw: her voice is luxuriant, and she sets the balance between singer and accompanist distinctively here. Drake has plenty to do, for Liszt wrote himself plenty of good lines here, but the clarity of Cooke's singing keeps the focus on the melodies. Sample track 9, the Goethe setting Wer nie sein Brot mit Tränen aß, S297, for which there exists a recording by baritone Gerald Finley earlier in the set. Cooke's limpid reading places the song closer to the tradition of Schubert's famous song on this text, while Finley's looks forward to the Hugo Wolf era. Many of the songs here are late works and tend toward simplicity; again Cooke's voice works well in this regard. Ich scheide ("I'm leaving," track 6), a gorgeous breakup song, is another standout of a set that probably will work to elevate the reputation of Liszt's songs.