In 2003, at the Verbier Festival in the Swiss Alps, four singers with fabulously contrasting voices got together with James Levine on piano to perform Brahms’ chamber music. Thirteen years later Deutsche Grammophon made the welcome decision to release the performance onto CD. Among the singers was Czech mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kožená who has already featured in one of my reviews this year (Monteverdi), and I’m happy to be praising her vocal gifts once again.

Brahms’ Liebeslieder Waltzes for four voices may not be in fashion – lieder these days seems a more solitary, concert-hall pursuit than a community one – but unfairly so. According to the liner notes, Brahms referred disparagingly to his first set of Liebeslieder as ‘trifles’. While some, such as ‘Rede, Mädchen, allzu liebes’ (‘Tell me, maiden dearest’), are at the lighter end of the lieder spectrum, they perfectly showcase the magnificent voices on this recording. Brahms, later than both Schubert and Schumann, and therefore composing in a slightly more ‘Romantic’ esthetic, had a knack for writing beautiful, luscious melodies. They’re certainly not an easy sing, and one can’t hide behind the voluptuous vocal line and rolling piano accompaniment. He requires his singers to mine the depths of their vocal range in one bar, and soar to great heights in the next.

Take, for example, ‘Immer lieser wird mein schlummer’ (‘My slumbers grow lighter’). A woman huddles in bed at night, waiting for her lover to arrive. With a vocal range of an eleventh, Kožená is stretched to her limits. She brings to the music drama and vulnerability, and her steely tone cuts through the lush piano accompaniment. It’s a truly great interpretation. Thomas Quasthoff deserves a special mention for his stirring Sapphische Ode: his rich baritone will move even the hardest of hearts.

Alexandra Mathew