Werner Güra, Jan Schultsz - Wolf: Mörike-Lieder (2005)

Just to hear again Wolf's masterful settings of Mörike's beautiful poetry is a source of enormous pleasure: seldom has a composer so fully understood and empathised with a poet. To have these songs presented by two artists so fully able to comprehend the inner meaning of these inspired pieces is an added blessing. Few tenors have interpreted them, but none has surpassed Güra in his understanding of the idiom, and none has had a partner so aware of every nuance in the piano parts as Schultsz.
Together they box the compass of these farranging and inspired Lieder, by turns philosophical, love-enchanted, light-footed, dramatic and comic. From the quiet meditation of Gebet right at the start through to the cynical humour of Abschied right at the end the pair take us through an emotional trail that is ever-absorbing.
In terms of vocal acuity Güra offers a wide range of tone, a specially vivid gift where wordpainting is concerned, above all the sheer evenness and beauty of the singing.
Just to offer a few examples of the many delights encountered along the way, there is the spring ecstasy at the end of Er ist's, the wonder of Im Frühling, the plangent tone in the famous Aufein altes Bild, the spontaneous joy of Auf einerWanderung, the erotic excitement of Begegnung, the blissful lassitude of Verborgenheit, the comic enactment of the drummer-boy's dreams and – perhaps best of all – the inner wonder and broad intensity of the four master-songs about love beginning with An die Geliebte.
Finally, in the nightmarish melodrama of DerFeuerreiter and the coyish humour of Storchenbotschaft, Schultsz's virtuoso playing seconds the wide-ranging dynamics of Güra's singing.
This disc cannot be recommended too strongly either to admirers of Wolf or to those who want to know why he can be among the most compelling of composers in the genre.