Thomas Oliver

Back in the 1970s, Vol. 126 of the French RCA Black and White series focused on Thomas Morris' recordings dating from the year 1926. Included on that album were two vocalists whose absence from this Classics package must be attributed to a planned compilation of rare vocal recordings from this period. While Margaret Johnson's "When a 'Gator Hollers, Folks Say It's a Sign of Rain" would have added a Ma Rainey touch, the non-inclusion of Evelyn Preer's "Make Me Know It," recorded September 7, 1926, is heartbreaking but only to the few who know of the existence of this beautifully wistful love song…

Nearly all of Loewe's most popular ballads are included in this collection, sung by a voice that is admirably suited to them, and interpreted by an intelligence that dramatizes each song grippingly without the need to inflect every emotive word. Quasthoff's baritone has a rich and sonorous extension into the bass range, a broad palette of vocal colour (so he can personify the child, the father and the sinister wraith in Erlkonig or act out the fraught colloquy of Edward without ever ceasing to sing) and it is a voice that can touch lightly or sing quietly without losing tone.