Graham Johnson’s complete Schubert and Schumann songs series for Hyperion are landmarks in the history of recorded music. Now this indefatigable performer and scholar turns to the songs and vocal works of Brahms. Each disc of this Hyperion edition takes a journey through Brahms’s career. The songs are not quite presented in chronological order but they do appear here in the order that the songs were presented to the world. Each recital represents a different journey through the repertoire (and thus through Brahms’s life). In a number of these Hyperion recitals an opus number will be presented in its entirety (in the case of this disc, Op 48). The folksongs of 1894 will be shared between all the singers in the series.

Hyperion is delighted to present the celebrated mezzo-soprano Angelika Kirchschlager in this first volume of the series. She enjoys an international career as one of today’s most important singers, dividing her time between recitals and opera in Europe, North America and the Far East.

Angelika Kirchschlager sings with purity of tone, evenly produced and unfailingly accurate in intonation...Graham Johnson's notes...complementary to his playing, are enlightening as ever and in a way which only he knows how to be. Gramophone

Johnson's arrangement of this recital and his exceptional accompanying skills, together with Kirchschlager's voice and approach, almost always so appropriate to Brahms, make this a highly desirable disc. Int. Record Review

Graham Johnson, once again, is both mastermind and pianist, and, as ever, his accompanying notes and essays are as witty and richly allusive as his playing...This recital is beautifully shaped. BBC ****