Miro Imai

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was not only one of the greatest and most important of the German poets, but without doubt alsothe one whose lyrics were most frequently set to music. The album Goethe Project by the German soprano Ute Ziemer and pianistHiroko Imai provides a lasting impression of the diversity of composers who used Goethe's works as the basis for songs. Inaddition to popular composers such as Schumann, Grieg, Schubert, Verdi, Strauss, Wolf or Wagner, there are also barely performedworks by Amy Beach, Johann Xaver Sterkel, Fanny Hensel, Josephine Lang, Anton Webern or Alban Berg. Even to this day, Goethecontinues to fascinate composers as a poet, as shown by the songs dedicated to Ute Ziemer by Enjott Schneider (*1950), DorotheaHofmann (*1961) and Johannes Martin Krnzle (*1962), which were recorded for the first time for this CD.

Apparently a staple in Russia, the music of Taneyev exists on the fringes of the repertoire in the West, something that should be rectified–and will be if this superb CD made by a starry cast of performers gets the attention it deserves. He’s a Romantic composer, but hardly of the heart-on-sleeve variety, since he was a master of counterpoint and firmly encased his Romantic impulses in a well-fitted classical jacket. Sometimes he makes you think of a more modern, pungent Brahms with a Russian accent.