John Axelrod, Wolfgang Holzmair, Dame Felicity Lott - Brahms Beloved: Symphonies 1 & 3 / Clara Schumann Lieder (2014) [Hi-Res]

John Axelrod returns to the podium and the piano to complete his much admired cycle of Brahms symphonies and Clara Schumann songs - joined for this volume by celebrated soprano Dame Felicity Lott and distinguished Lieder specialist Wolfgang Holzmair.

This is the second and final volume of ‘Brahms Beloved’, in which conductor John Axelrod pairs the Brahms Symphonies (in this set, the First and the Third) with songs by his muse, Clara Schumann. Volume 1 stimulated healthy debate among Brahmsians as to how deeply enmeshed the presence of Clara is in the songs of the man who always had a love for her, and this volume takes the discussion further with an insightful booklet essay by Jan Swafford, author of a standard-reference Brahms biography. Keeping with the idea of using different voice-types for each ‘set’ of Clara’s songs, the better to explore the notion of different sides of their composer’s character, this volume introduces the two final “Claras,” the great Lieder singers Dame Felicity Lott and Wolfgang Holzmair (for the more masculine side of Clara). The orchestra is again the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi, of which John Axelrod is Principal Conductor, and Axelrod once more does double duty as conductor and pianist.

John Axelrod is Principal Conductor of the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi, as well as Music Director of the Orchestre National des Pays et des Loire. A former pupil of Leonard Bernstein, he is one of today’s most in-demand conductors. Recordings he has made include a much-praised Berlioz and Ravel disc with Veronique Gens and the ONPL for Ondine Classics, the album American Serenade also with the ONPL and violinist Rachel Kolly d’Alba for Warner Classics, and Gorecki’s Third Symphony with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra for Sony Classical.