According to some claims, Brahms might have left us as many songs as Schubert, if he had been less self-critical. As it is, the 204 that have come down to us make a more manageable number for a record company proposing a complete edition, as CPO is doing with this first volume of a series. The songs are arranged in opus number order - not the only way, as the chronological order of composition was somewhat different, but Brahms carefully edited the songs into discrete groups by opus himself and it is helpful to hear each song in the place he devised for it.
In this opening volume the strongest songs stand out prominently. Not the least of them is the very first, 'Liebestreu', Op 3 No 1, a brilliantly taut composition which germinates from a single nagging three-note motif. The first of the Op 7 set, 'Treue Liebe', attracted the attention of Kirsten Flagstad on record (Decca, 5/95) and its mighty romantic sweep gives a foretaste of the glories to come in Brahms's later years. The rest may be less exceptional, but Juliane Banse captures nicely the teasing playfulness of the 'Spanisches Lied', Op 6 No 1, and Andreas Schmidt is gentleness itself in the hushed 'Gang zur Liebsten' from the Op 14 folk-songs. Guided by Helmut Deutsch's experienced hands at the piano, they make a contrasting pair of interpreters, Banse the more animated, Schmidt the more even of tone. As yet, however, their big challenges are still to come.'