The ultimate song cycle performed by two of today’s foremost lieder interpreters; this release is destined to become the reference recording for anyone interested in the great German song tradition. Baritone Florian Boesch’s eagerly-awaited second album on Linn presents Robert Schumann’s best-loved song cycle, Dichterliebe, Op. 48: sixteen poetic gems by Heinrich Heine which reflect on a poet’s idea of love and loss. Treated on equal terms, the piano plays a decisive role, adding extra layers whilst emphasizing and enhancing the text. The lesser-known Zwölf Gedichte von Justinus Kerner complete the programme. This recording reunites the exceptional partnership of Florian Boesch and leading song pianist Malcolm Martineau, whose previous Linn recording, Schumann & Mahler: Lieder, won the 2019 BBC Music Magazine Vocal Award. Surely the lieder recording highlight of the year!

Malcolm Martineau is the brilliant initiator of this new one-of-a-kind series on Linn. The Brahms Songbook has set the unprecedented goal to record Brahms’s lieder by complete opus number. For its first instalment, Martineau has teamed up with famed Dutch baritone Thomas Oliemans in the expansive Romanzen aus Magelone, Op. 33. Composed between 1861 and 1869, the youthful, inevitably romantic fifteen-song cycle tells the story of a noble warrior, a Neapolitan princess and a sultan’s daughter. The operatic-like cycle goes through the emotions of each character as the tale unfolds. Oliemans’s busy stage career and ‘communicative singing style’ (The New York Times) make him the perfect fit. The album concludes with the virtually unknown ‘Regenlied’ cycle: four songs that were later included in Acht Lieder und Gesänge, Op. 59. Volume 2 will see Dame Sarah Connolly and Hanno Müller-Brachmann share the bill.

This Ondine debut album by the award-winning Lithuanian mezzo-soprano Justina Gringyte, one of the foremost rising stars of the opera world, and pianist Malcolm Martineau is her first solo album and the complete recording of Georges Bizet's (1838-1875) long-forgotten masterpiece, Vingt Melodies (20 Songs), Op. 21. Year 2025 marks the 150th anniversary of the death of Bizet, one of the greatest French composers of all time. During his short career of little more than twenty years Bizet composed a substantial quantity of music, including 15 operas. Bizet has been compared with Mozart in his sensitivity to the human voice and understanding of it's expressive potential. Several of Bizet's operas predate his twenty songs Opus 21, written between 1854 and 1872. Anyone new to these songs, a collection including many masterpieces, may wonder how music of such consistent quality could be so neglected! Clearly, they must be ranked among Bizet's most representative works.

Following the successful album "Nicht Wiedersehen!", the internationally acclaimed bassist Gunther Groissbock and one of the most distinguished pianists in his field, Malcolm Martineau, are now dedicating their new program to the subject of love; under the title "Mannerliebe und Leben" (A Man's Love and Life), they explore love from a man's point of view - based on Schumann's well-known cycle "Frauenliebe und -leben" (A Woman's Love and Life). Beginning with what is probably the first known song cycle in music history, "An die ferne Geliebte" by Ludwig van Beethoven, the well-rehearsed duo then present Schumann's "Dichterliebe". Three songs by Anton Bruckner ("I'm April", "Herbstkummer" and "Mein Herz und deine Stimme") are preceded by further selected songs by Johannes Brahms, including "Wie bist du, meine Konigin", "Unbewegte laue Luft", "Die Mainacht" and "Nicht mehr zu dir zu gehen".

The Austrian bass Günther Groissböck enchants on the opera and concert stages around the world with the unique noble sound of his voice and virtually breathtaking verve of performance. Together with Malcolm Martineau, who is recognized worldwide as one of the leading piano accompanists of his generation, Groissböck presents on the album “Nicht Wiedersehen!” incomparable interpretations of late Romantic songs and ballads by Richard Strauss, Gustav Mahler and Hans Rott.

The duo pays homage to passion in Strauss songs such as “Zueignung”, “Allerseelen” or “Breit' über mein Haupt”, or leaves the audience rather thoughtful with “Der Einsame”, “Das Thal” or “Befreit”. Hans Rott, who died at a young age, can be heard in “Wandrer’s Nachtlied”, “Geistesgruß” and “Der Sänger”. Groissböck also brings the tragic characters in Mahler’s songs “Revelge”, “Zu Straßburg auf der Schanz’”, “Tamboursg’sell” or “Nicht wiedersehen!” to life in an incomparable way, before this great recording promises a transcendental end with “Urlicht”.

For a period of the 20th Century, due to his talent and association with Benjamin Britten, Peter Pears was perhaps the world's most famous classical singer. Pears inspired Britten to create great works of art precisely because Pears was a compelling artist with an exceptional voice, an inquisitive mind, a knowledge of art, history, literature and poetry. They became a self-perpetuating duo, inspiring each other to even greater heights of artistry, technical ability, and emotional certainty. This album of works by Lennox Berkeley, Benjamin Britten, Arthur Oldham, Richard Rodney Bennett and Geoffrey Bush is performed by tenor Robin Tritschler, who is joined by cellist Philip Higham, guitarist Sean Shibe and pianist Malcolm Martineau. Praise for Robin Tritschler and Malcolm Martineau: 4 stars Performance, 4 stars Recording "Robin Tritschler's sweet-toned voice is a continual delight, as is Malcolm Martineau's sparkling, pearly, luminous piano sound" - BBC Music Magazine

Malcolm Martineau follows up his acclaimed complete song collections of Poulenc and Faure with an album celebrating the solo songs of Henri Duparc, performed by an acclaimed roster of British singers – Dame Sarah Connolly, Huw Montague Rendall, Nicky Spence & William Thomas. An iconic figure in the world of French music – his songs described as being ‘imperfect...but works of genius’ by Ravel and ‘perfect’ by Debussy – Duparc only composed a handful of works during the first half of his life: following a nervous disorder in 1885 at age 37 he lived for a further 48 years, orchestrating and tinkering with his songs, but publishing nothing new.

Scottish pianist Malcolm Martineau is recognized at the highest international level as one of the UK’s leading accompanists, performing worldwide alongside the world’s greatest singers and with a discography of over 100 albums, including a number of award-winning recordings.

REVIEW

With four singers in the line-up, there is plenty of vocal variety. The lion’s share of the songs is allotted to Sarah Connolly who still has her voice in fine fettle. She perhaps displays a wider vibrato than in past, but the tone is beautiful and her expressiveness is undiminished, and her high notes ring out gloriously. She is allotted seven songs, while her three male colleagues have three each. But we shouldn’t forget the fifth participant, Malcolm Martineau at the piano. His role is just as important as the singers’, since these songs are no mere melodies with accompaniments but rather dramatic or narrative scenes, where the piano sets the scene and propels the action forward. In that respect Duparc is Wagnerian in his approach. Obviously we focus on the singer, but the piano part mustn’t be suppressed. Malcolm Martineau shows that he is a born director and keeps the proceedings on a tight rein.

-- MusicWeb International

Baritone Florian Boesch and pianist Malcolm Martineau continue their successful collaboration on Linn with a recital pairing two geniuses who hated each other. Exploring the rivalry between Johannes Brahms and Hugo Wolf, the album showcases some of their most compelling songs which express deep emotion and philosophical themes. Brahms's Vier ernste Gesange, written in memory of Clara Schumann, contrasts melancholy with transcendence, whilst lieder like Sehnsucht and Die Trauernde evoke poignant pain and unresolved longing. Wolf, in his Goethe and Michelangelo songs, captures profound existential reflections, contrasting fame with love and weaving harmonies that echo the complexities of human emotion. The album concludes with Wolf's Prometheus, a tour-de-force of maximum power befitting Florian and Malcolm, two giants of the lieder scene.

Pianist Malcolm Martineau is the brilliant initiator of this new one-of-a-kind series on Linn. The Brahms Songbook has set the unprecedented goal to record Brahms's lieder by complete opus number. In this second instalment, Malcolm is joined by star mezzo-soprano Dame Sarah Connolly and bass-baritone Hanno Muller-Brachmann in five sets that were composed and published over a period of thirty years: Op. 72, Op. 105, Op. 43, Op. 48 and Op. 57. In a time when the middle-class was growing, song-writing was both lucrative and pleasurable, offering a myriad of ways to explore perennially popular topics like unrequited love. Yet, in the lieder recorded here Brahms immerses us in a heightened emotional world, distant from the drawing rooms and concert halls of the bourgeoisie.

Sarah Fox: Mozart Concert Arias