Schubertians are in luck this month. This rewarding recital forms an apt complement to that by Blochwitz reviewed on page 95, with only two overlaps. Indeed if you are a new collector and can afford both discs you would have as rounded and satisfying a conspectus of Schubert's song-writing, bar maybe the big ballad settings, as could be wished. Bonney's programme is as carefully planned as that of her tenor colleague. She begins with a substantial selection of Goethe settings, going to the heart of the matter in all the Mignon songs, singing Ganymed with exemplary legato and breath control. Then she makes a well-varied selection from many of the better-known pieces. She crosses paths with Blochwitz only in Die Forelle and Auf dem Wasser zu singen. Both take the same time over each, but it is worth noting that Jansen, for Blochwitz, finds more variety and lift in the barcarolle-like accompaniment of the latter song that does Parsons. Vocally speaking, both versions are enjoyable in their natural accomplishments.
Bonney's line and breath are again remarkable in Du bist die Ruh, which also demonstrates, as do all the other offerings, the purity of her tone—more North American clear-aired than Viennese creamy—yet that is never allowed to exclude depth of feeling. Indeed when she returns to the Goethe settings with Gretchen am Spinnrade she shows particular eloquence in the way that, at a deliberate pace, she builds the song unerringly to its climaxes and also catches the inwardness of Gretchen's state of mind. Bonney adds an equally moving account of Gretchens Bitte, perhaps sensibly eschewing the endings proposed by various hands to this unfinished piece. The way it breaks off in mid-thought has its own poignancy. The recital is completed by a fresh, unfettered and open-air account of Der Hirt auf dem Felsen, a touch of plangency rightly added in the middle section, with a neat, fluent clarinet obbligato from Sharon Kam, all based on Parsons's secure playing. Earlier, in some of the strophic songs, such as Heidenroslein, Bonney is free with tempo and rhythm but her liberties are fully justified by the results.
The Teldec recording is faultless throughout. Quite apart from those putative new Schubertians mentioned above, all this soprano's many admirers will surely want this disc.'