The Canadian baritone Kevin McMillan has made quite a reputation for himself as an interpreter of Lieder. He proves his intelligence with the wise words he writes to accompany his account of the Schubert cycle, making perceptive comments about how a baritone, as opposed to a tenor, should approach the work, about his decisions on choosing between editions of the score and about the emotional state of the youth portrayed within. To compensate for transpositions, he deliberately adopts a tenorish, light tone. He is also well aware of the dangers of reading too much into the music. His is a likeable, not to say affable youth: indeed that is part of my difficulty with his reading. I seldom identified, as I do in the best versions, with the boy's suffering. I admired the attractive tone, the neatly turned phrasing, the clear diction, but I was seldom persuaded that the cycle was being approached as if spontaneously, with immediate response to the feelings of the protagonist. There is also something in McMillan's purely musical performance that is a shade foursquare and complacent, and his voice, for all its accomplishment, is a trifle narrow in its range. If you want a baritone with similar attributes to McMillan but a deeper understanding of the cycle's needs choose Holzmair (Preiser) or Bar (EMI).
For his other recital, McMillan again shows his intelligence, this time in a well-constructed programme of Heine settings. Unfortunately the strictures applied to the Schubert cycle are also relevant to his account of Schumann's Dichterliebe: again one misses the essential attribute of gripping the music and presenting it as something being felt at that moment in time. That's what you sense in the recommended baritonal versions by Bar (EMI) and Waechter (Decca). In his Brahms readings, McMillan is again inclined to touch only the surface of the music—where is the grand passion represented by Der Tod, das ist die kuhle Nacht? By contrast his bold attack and dramatic instincts make his Liszt readings desirable and he is also attuned to Mendelssohn's quicksilver touch in Neue Liebe. In the two somewhat oddly placed masterpieces added almost as an afterthought, McMillan—for all his sensibility—is overshadowed by the looming presence of such great interpreters as Fischer-Dieskau and Schreier.
Both North American pianists are admirably alert and thoughtful players, with McMahon offering special insight in the Schumann cycle. The recording of both discs is impeccable.'