The vogue for singing Schumann continues apace with these two very attractive discs. For those who want to make a choice between recent issues, the situation is, to say the least, perplexing for it inevitably involves a number of overlaps. Both these recitals include the Op. 24 Liederkreis, also sung by Schreier on a three-disc Teldec/Warner Classics collection reviewed last month. Schreier selected five of the Op. 35 Kerner settings (perhaps sensibly as not all the songs are Schumann at his best), while Bar offers the complete set of 12. Meanwhile the admirable Holzmair investigates a number of quite unjustly neglected pieces not included in the Schreier box. As all three offerings are desirable acquisitions, the eager Schumann enthusiast may want all of them.
As regards Op. 24, common to all three releases, if one compares the two baritones here under review, there is a marked difference in voice and approach on the part of both singer and pianist. In the very first song, one immediately notes Bar and Parsons's more reticent, romantic approach as compared with Holzmair and Levy's crisper articulation and bolder attack; but paradoxically here and throughout it is Bar who deliberately makes more of words and consonants, Holzmair—though clear enough in his diction—is insistent on a true legato. Listen to ''Schone Wiege'' and you'll at once notice the contrast. Levy is the more interventionist pianist, keen on bringing to our notice Schumann's harmonic contrasts yet usually keeping the textures lighter than does Parsons. It has to be said that Eschenbach for Schreier combines the best attributes of both his colleagues. But Holzmair and Levy offer a most perceptive version, so that anyone wanting this programme on a single disc can safely opt for their rendering.
A year or two older than Bar, Holzmair has taken his time to come before a public outside his native Austria, but as this disc and his Mendelssohn recital (reviewed by LS on page 100) show, he is a new Lieder singer of quite exceptional attainments as I anticipated when I heard his Schone Mullerin (Preiser/Harmonia Mundi (CD) 93337, 3/89), issued in 1989 but recorded in 1985. On the evidence of this new disc, he is in better form than Bar, whose rather breathy tone and occasional moments of strain pre-echo the vocal crisis he went through shortly after making the disc late in 1989, and which he has since happily come through. Holzmair's slightly vibrant tone and sensitive phrasing are encountered to even greater advantage in his chosen group of Heine settings—it would be hard to find a more beautifully sung version of the well-known ''Du bist wie eine Blume'' and ''Die Lotosblume'' or of Meine Rose, second of the uneven Lenau settings, Op. 90. He also has the dramatic strength for depicting the melodrama of the two grenadiers and the open-air humour of ''Der Kontrabandiste''. Even better is the romance, ''Flutenreicher Ebro'', once a favourite with Schlusnus. Holzmair finds even more joy in the airy piece than that noble baritone. Anyone listening to this song interpreted by Holzmair will want this appealing disc, which is faultlessly recorded.
Bar's reading of Op. 35 has all the refinement of nuance and intensity of expression for which he is noted. He is particularly successful in the bitter-sweet sentiments of the last five songs, perhaps the most consistent in the set. Here one is consoled for any momentary vocal failings by the naturalness of the interpretations, though one should not forget Fischer-Dieskau's classic reading of this set with Moore on his live Salzburg disc of Schumann on Orfeo/Harmonia Mundi (coupled with the baritone's Op. 39 performance). However, those who are collecting Bar's important series of recordings for EMI will want to add this one to their growing collection, although they may be disconcerted by the unattractive box front.'