This issue places me in various quandaries. Having just been fulsome in my praise of the Teldec issue, I find that I have to recommend this version with the same enthusiasm. But there is one reservation involved: I had forgotten of late the DG version of 1976, languishing in the company's archives, with Mathis and Schreier as very special interpreters, Karl Engel as pianist (8/77). That badly deserves and may soon receive a new life on the Classikon label.
I was of course reminded of it by the reappearance of the irreplaceable Schreier as male soloist on this Hyperion set. It is gratifying to hear again a tenor rather than a baritone in all the lyrical masterpieces so liberally distributed over the Italian Songbook and to hear each sung with such understanding and feeling. You will surely be as uplifted and amazed as I am at his perceptive, natural way of encompassing the awe of ''Der Mond hat eine schwere Klag'', the ecstatic adoration of ''Und willst du deinen Liebsten'', the swagger of ''Ein Standchen euch zu bringen'', the tenderness of ''Und steh Ihr fruh am Morgen auf'', the simple beauty of ''Benedeit die sel'ge Mutter'', or any other of the man's songs calling for the pure, spontaneous art of this great tenor, with its refined line and ideal placing of words on tone. If you have his older version, you will no doubt hear some decline in the tonal quality: a singer in his late fifties will not retain the ease of one in his late thirties, but we are consoled for that loss by an even deeper penetration into the meaning of these marvellous pieces. Schreier also deliciously characterizes that unique song about the erring monks.
Where the woman's pieces are concerned, Felicity Lott seems perfectly attuned to the serious songs of love, but I find her somewhat affected and exaggerated in the comic and ironic ones. The contrast can be felt in successive songs. In ''Du sagst mir'' she seems to be straining to convey its mocking mood; in ''Wohl kenn ich Euren Stand'' she perfectly conveys hopeless, true love through her sincere, lovely singing. She is also excellent in the scorn of ''Was soll der Zorn?'' and earlier ''Wer rief ich denn?'', sung in an all-in, Schwarzkopf-like vein, but as soon as Wolf adopts his humorous mode she sounds unnatural. Bonney, on the Teldec, with a smaller range of vocal and emotional colour, is by and large more satisfying.
Partnering both singers, Johnson is at his most positive; listen to the lilting serenader in ''Mein Liebster singt'', or what Eric Sams calls the ''chiming motif'' in ''Gesegnet sei das Grun'', or the gentle tip-toeing in ''O war dein Haus'': the playing is at once luminous and exact (similar qualities inform the excellent recording). As ever Johnson's notes are masterly in their insights. If you want a version with a tenor soloist, this one will be a definite choice. If you prefer a baritone, you will have to choose between the relative merits of the two masterly sets listed above. Any of the three offers unending pleasure.AB