The appearance of Jessye Norman's Brahms Lieder selection on CD amplifies and enriches its already deeply satisfying thematic balance. This is the disc of sleep and waking visions and of luminous May nights: now, with still closer focus, the piano's dense harmonies fuse with the voice's long vowels through Heine's images of death and dream in Der Tod, das ist die kuhle Nacht; and the voice seems to pass ever more subtly in and out of half-light in Holty's Mainacht. The sudden brilliance of flute, violin and zither, imitated so deftly in Parsons's fingers for the final Standchen is no less effective than the velvet cushioning of the piano's hammers in the first, Von ewiger Liebe.
This, too, is the disc of Norman's now classic Immer leise and Meine Liebe ist grun; and also the selection which gives us the two Op. 91 songs with viola obbligato. Ulrich von Wrochem's playing digs deep through its changing registers, evoking no less than Norman's almost palpably breathed singing, the very spirit of German romantic sehnsucht. If you missed the LP in 1980, now's your chance.'