On track: Curious luck of Lemalu

By WILLIAM DART

Hyperion's Songs of Robert Schumann continues a tradition started with the label's 37-CD set of Songs of Franz Schubert.

The inspiration for both projects came from that doyen of accompanists, Graham Johnson. Using the best singers available, caught on disc with Hyperion's usual finesse and providing a booklet so luxurious a special case is needed to accommodate it, these CDs are superb additions to any library.

The eighth Schumann instalment features three singers and the contrast of voices could not be better planned.

Whereas Mark Padmore's graceful, penetrating tenor betrays his Early Music background, Christopher Maltman knows the fervent side of the dramatic (he tackled Dichterliebe on Hyperion's Schumann 5 in 2001). Jonathan Lemalu needs no introduction to New Zealanders, especially after his popular EMI debut last year.

The centrepiece of the new disc is the Opus 24 Liederkries, and Maltman gives each number its own weight and individuality. Later, the English baritone invests the ghostly Die nachtliche Heerschau with a real Mahlerian edge.

Padmore brings a true tenor rapture to the autumnal Im Herbste and duets energetically with Maltman in Der Fischer, with its strong echoes of Schubert's Erlking.

Jonathan Lemalu's first appearance is a theatrical entrance, making the most of an impish setting of Festes Song from Twelfth Night. Johnson's description "laddish" in the programme note aptly catches the spirit of both the song and the singer.

An English-speaking background may be an advantage in a German setting of Robbie Burns' Me Love is like a Red Red Rose, but Lemalu is just as much at ease with the Wagnerian grandeur of Trost im Gesang. He catches the lingering emotions of Nur ein lachelnder Blick effectively too, although his breathing is particularly obtrusive here.

In an album of curiosities, lucky Lemalu has the most curious of all the offerings. Die rote Hanna and Der deutscher Rhein both have a political intent behind them. They even come with rousing choruses, although the singers of the Ex Cathedra Consort do pale rather alongside Lemalu's robust baritone. You might find you want to join in and swell their ranks, especially on the stirring Rhinesong.

* The Songs of Robert Schumann 8 (with Jonathan Lemalu), Hyperion CDJ 33108