Kate Royal - Songs of Robert Schumann [10] (Hyperion)

The set, first published in August 1842 and composed of twelve lieder, is a test of any singer's skill. The wide range of moods, ranging from Mondnacht's hushed crepuscular beauty to Waldesgespräch's sinister grotesqueness, requires a singer with great musical intelligence and width of expressive delivery. The vocal writing is also frequently, and often deceptively, challenging. Mondnacht's opening rising phrase, placed above a cruelly falling-away bass line, requires pinpoint precision, yet hopefully the delivery will be subtly varied in each of the phrase's five outings.

Kate Royal's soprano is firm and focused, blessed with a warm and smooth legato in the middle register and a crisp, light vibrato up above. In der Fremde, the cycle's opening song, is smooth and shapely, Royal's occasionally mournful timbre slotting perfectly into Eichendorff's eloquent poetry. The Intermezzo makes its presence felt unusually strongly. Throughout, each song is nobly delivered, every word clear and articulation always strong. At a couple of moments (take Schöne Fremde as demonstration), Royal can seem stretched in the higher-lying passages, but she concentrates valiantly and always remains true to the musical line.

Pianist Graham Johnson provides a memorable account of the cycle, though perhaps one could occasionally quibble over his sometimes overly-expressive tempi inflections, which can detract from the songs' natural, self-born rhythms. Johnson views the Waldesgespräch as a miniature dramatic poem of almost operatic stature, stretching the tempi, dynamics and shape to suit his purpose, melding every trill, grace-note and pointy passage of staccato into a suggestive musical tapestry, effectively evoking the sinister tale. Throughout, Johnson's playing by turn pulsates and rustles, is always packed with detail and continues to provide great, often unusual, insight into this frequently-played cycle.

The disc continues with a range of soloists. Ann Murray and Felicity Lott duet with great humour in the sweetly innocent Mädchenlieder songs; Lott sings Mein Garten with refinement and elegancy; reciter Christopher Bantzer perhaps lacks some sparkle in his voice, but his contribution to the Zwei Balladen für Deklamation is fluid and involving, excellently capturing the mood of Hebbel's and Shelley's poetry. But it is Royal's contribution that proves the most memorable. Here is a young artist not so much with a promising future as with a very exciting present.

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