Brahms & Wolf: Lieder Florian Boesch & Malcolm Martineau

• Johannes Brahms (1833 - 1897): Vier ernste Gesänge, Op. 121:
• 1 Brahms: Vier ernste Gesänge, Op. 121: No. 1, Denn es gehet dem Menschen 04:02
• 2 Brahms: Vier ernste Gesänge, Op. 121: No. 2, Ich wandte mich 03:33
• 3 Brahms: Vier ernste Gesänge, Op. 121: No. 3, O Tod, wie bitter bist du 03:41
• 4 Brahms: Vier ernste Gesänge, Op. 121: No. 4, Wenn ich mit Menschen und mit Engelszungen redete 04:54
• Hugo Wolf (1860 - 1903): Goethe-Lieder:
• 5 Wolf: Goethe-Lieder: No. 1, Harfenspieler I 03:19
• 6 Wolf: Goethe-Lieder: No. 2, Harfenspieler II 02:17
• 7 Wolf: Goethe-Lieder: No. 3, Harfenspieler III 02:25
• Johannes Brahms: Fünf Lieder, Op. 47:
• 8 Brahms: Fünf Lieder, Op. 47: No. 3, Sonntag 01:38
• Lieder und Gesänge, Op. 58:
• 9 Brahms: Lieder und Gesänge, Op. 58: No. 1, Blinde Kuh 01:14
• Lieder und Romanzen, Op. 14:
• 10 Brahms: Lieder und Romanzen, Op. 14: No. 8, Sehnsucht 00:57
• Lieder und Gesänge, Op. 59:
• 11 Brahms: Lieder und Gesänge, Op. 59: No. 8. Dein blaues Auge 01:50
• Sechs Gesänge, Op. 7:
• 12 Brahms: Sechs Gesänge, Op. 7: No. 5, Die Trauernde 01:29
• Lieder und Gesänge, Op. 58:
• 13 Brahms: Lieder und Gesänge, Op. 58: No. 5, Schwermut 02:30
• Deutsche Volkslieder, WoO 33:
• 14 Brahms: Deutsche Volkslieder, WoO 33: No. 41, Es steht ein Lind 02:14
• 15 Brahms: Deutsche Volkslieder, WoO 33: No. 6, Da unten im Tale 01:48
• Hugo Wolf: Drei Gedichte von Michelangelo:
• 16 Wolf: Drei Gedichte von Michelangelo: No. 1, Wohl denk’ ich o  01:52
• 17 Wolf: Drei Gedichte von Michelangelo: No. 2, Alles endet, was entstehet 03:23
• 18 Wolf: Drei Gedichte von Michelangelo: No. 3, Fühlt meine Seele 03:39
• Sechs Gedichte von Scheffel, Mörike, Goethe und Kerner:
• 19 Wolf: Sechs Gedichte von Scheffel, Mörike, Goethe und Kerner: No. 5, Wanderers Nachtlied 02:25
• Mörike-Lieder:
• 20 Wolf: Mörike-Lieder: No. 7, Das Verlassene Mägdlein 03:19
• Eichendorff-Lieder:
• 21 Wolf: Eichendorff-Lieder: No. 19, Die Nacht 02:53
• Mörike-Lieder:
• 22 Wolf: Mörike-Lieder: No. 39, Denk es, o Seele! 03:10
• 23 Wolf: Goethe-Lieder: No. 29, Anakreons Grab 02:36
• 24 Wolf: Goethe-Lieder: No. 49, Prometheus 07:16
• Total Runtime 01:08:24

Info for Brahms & Wolf: Lieder

Baritone Florian Boesch and pianist Malcolm Martineau continue their successful collaboration on Linn with a recital pairing two geniuses who hated each other. Exploring the rivalry between Johannes Brahms and Hugo Wolf, the album showcases some of their most compelling songs which express deep emotion and philosophical themes. Brahms’s Vier ernste Gesänge, written in memory of Clara Schumann, contrasts melancholy with transcendence, whilst lieder like Sehnsucht and Die Trauernde evoke poignant pain and unresolved longing. Wolf, in his Goethe and Michelangelo songs, captures profound existential reflections, contrasting fame with love and weaving harmonies that echo the complexities of human emotion. The album concludes with Wolf’s Prometheus, a tour-de-force of maximum power befitting Florian and Malcolm, two giants of the lieder scene.

Florian Boesch, baritone
Malcolm Martineau, piano

Florian Boesch
Austrian baritone Florian Boesch is hailed as one of today’s foremost Lieder interpreters, appearing regularly at London’s Wigmore Hall, Vienna’s Musikverein and Konzerthaus, Carnegie Hall, the Het Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Laeiszhalle Hamburg, Konzerthaus in Dortmund, Philharmonie Luxemburg, Philharmonie Cologne, deDoelen Rotterdam, the Edinburgh, Schwetzingen and Salzburg Festivals. Accompanied by Malcolm Martineau, he performed all three Schubert cycles in Glasgow and across Australia (Sydney, Adelaide and Melbourne). Florian Boesch has been an artist in residence at the Wigmore Hall, Vienna Konzerthaus, Teatro de la Zarzuela in Madrid and Theater an der Wien. In the 2021/2022 season, he demonstrated his artistic versatility as artist in residence at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg.

A frequent guest on the concert platform, Florian Boesch has worked with leading orchestras such as the Vienna and Berlin Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Wiener Symphoniker, Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig, Staatskapelle Dredsden, Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Bamberg Symphoniker, London Symphony Orchestra, and Chamber Orchestra of Europe, under renowned conductors such as Giovanni Antonini, Ivor Bolton, Teodor Currentzis, Riccardo Chailly, Gustavo Dudamel, Adam Fischer, Iván Fischer, Stefan Gottfried, Philippe Herreweghe, Pablo Heras-Casado, Vladimir Jurowski, Mariss Jansons, Sir Roger Norrington, Andrés Orozco-Estrada, Sir Simon Rattle, Robin Ticciati und Franz Welser-Möst.

He worked particularly closely with Nikolaus Harnoncourt, with whom his final projects were Handel’s Messiah and Saul at the Wiener Musikverein and Purcell’s The Fairy Queen at the 2014 Styriarte festival. At the Salzburg Festival, they performed together in Haydn's The Creation and The Seasons.

Highlights of the current season include Weil's Seven Deadly Sins with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra under Sir Simon Rattle, Mahler Lieder with the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra under Lorenzo Viotti, Haydn's Creation under the direction of Adam Fischer Graz, concerts with Bach & Handel, as well as Brahms' Requiem with the Concentus Musicus under Stefan Gottfried in Grafenegg and Vienna, Bach's St Matthew Passion with Philippe Herreweghe on tour, Mendelssohn's Walpurgisnacht with Andrés Orozco-Estrada in Spain, and Britten's War Requiem with Mirga Grazinyte-Tyla in Paris. He also gives recitals at the Edinburgh Festival, the Schubertiada in Vilabertran, the Amsterdam Muziekgebouw and London's Wigmore Hall. He can be heard performing Schubert's Schöne Müllerin together with the Ensemble Franui at the Salzburg Festival and the Wiener Konzerthaus.

An equally compelling performer on the opera stage, Florian Boesch’s most recent productions included Handel’s Saul and Orlando conceived by Claus Guth at the Theater an der Wien. He has offered further acclaimed interpretations in staged versions of Schubert’s Lazarus and Handel’s Messiah, and as Jonathan Peachum in Kurt Weill’s Dreigroschenoper, in Purcell’s Fairy Queen, Alban Berg’s Wozzeck and Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro at the Theater an der Wien, while taking to the Berlin State Opera as Méphistophélès in Berlioz’ La Damnation de Faust at the Schillertheater under Sir Simon Rattle. Major productions of his career include Alban Berg’s Wozzeck in Cologne and Mozart’s Così fan tutte at the Salzburg Festival.

The 2022/2023 season marked Florian Boesch’s debut at the Vienna State Opera with a Mahler project entitled Von der Liebe Tod (leading team Calixto Bieito & Lorenzo Viotti), while in May 2023, he appeared in a staged production of Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin with Nikolaus Habjan and Musicbanda Franui at the Berlin State Opera Unter den Linden, which they took to the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, to the Bregenz Festival, Graz Opera, the Gmunden Salzkammergut Festival and the MusikTheater an der Wien. In June 2025, he can be seen again in Claus Guth's production of Handel's Saul at the Semperoper Dresden and will make his debut as Bluebeard in a new production of Bartók's Bluebeard's Castle at the Tyrol Festival in Erl, followed by a revival of the same production at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. In January 2026, he will return to the Nederlandse Opera with a new production of Handel's Semele under the direction of Emmanuelle Haïm.

Florian Boesch’s recordings have been celebrated among the international press, receiving numerous awards along the way, including an Edison Klassiek Award in 2012. Die schöne Müllerin was nominated for a 2015 Grammy in the category Best Classical Vocal Solo. In early September 2017, Hyperion released a new recording of Schubert’s Winterreise with Roger Vignoles at the piano; in autumn 2018 followed a recording of Schubert songs in an orchestrated version with Concentus Musicus Vienna under the baton of Stefan Gottfried. Boesch’s recordings of Schumann and Mahler songs also won him a BBC Music Magazine Award. In May 2023 a new album featuring Schumann’s Dichterliebe and Kerner Lieder was released by Linn records.

Florian Boesch received his initial vocal training from Ruthilde Boesch, after which came his studies in Lied and oratorio with Robert Holl in Vienna. Florian Boesch has been Professor of Lied and Oratorio at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna since autumn 2015.

Malcolm Martineau
Recognised as one of the leading accompanists of his generation, he has worked with many of the world’s greatest singers including Sir Thomas Allen, Dame Janet Baker, Olaf Bär, Barbara Bonney, Ian Bostridge, Angela Gheorghiu, Susan Graham, Thomas Hampson, Della Jones, Simon Keenlyside, Angelika Kirchschlager, Magdalena Kozena, Solveig Kringelborn, Jonathan Lemalu, Dame Felicity Lott, Christopher Maltman, Karita Mattila, Lisa Milne, Ann Murray, Anna Netrebko, Anne Sofie von Otter, Joan Rodgers, Amanda Roocroft, Michael Schade, Frederica von Stade, Sarah Walker and Bryn Terfel.

He has presented his own series at the Wigmore Hall (a Britten and a Poulenc series and Decade by Decade – 100 years of German Song broadcast by the BBC) and at the Edinburgh Festival (the complete lieder of Hugo Wolf). He has appeared throughout Europe (including London’s Wigmore Hall, Barbican, Queen Elizabeth Hall and Royal Opera House; La Scala, Milan; the Chatelet, Paris; the Liceu, Barcelona; Berlin’s Philharmonie and Konzerthaus; Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw and the Vienna Konzerthaus and Musikverein), North America (including in New York both Alice Tully Hall and Carnegie Hall), Australia (including the Sydney Opera House) and at the Aix en Provence, Vienna, Edinburgh, Schubertiade, Munich and Salzburg Festivals.

Recording projects have included Schubert, Schumann and English song recitals with Bryn Terfel (for Deutsche Grammophon); Schubert and Strauss recitals with Simon Keenlyside (for EMI); recital recordings with Angela Gheorghiu and Barbara Bonney (for Decca), Magdalena Kozena (for DG), Della Jones (for Chandos), Susan Bullock (for Crear Classics), Solveig Kringelborn (for NMA); Amanda Roocroft (for Onyx); the complete Fauré songs with Sarah Walker and Tom Krause; the complete Britten Folk Songs for Hyperion; the complete Beethoven Folk Songs for Deutsche Grammophon; the complete Poulenc songs for Signum; and Britten Song Cycles as well as Schubert’s Winterreise with Florian Boesch for Onyx.

This season’s engagements include appearances with Simon Keenlyside, Magdalena Kozena, Dorothea Röschmann, Susan Graham, Christopher Maltman, Thomas Oliemanns, Kate Royal, Christiane Karg, Iestyn Davies, Florian Boesch and Anne Schwanewilms.

He was a given an honorary doctorate at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in 2004, and appointed International Fellow of Accompaniment in 2009. Malcolm was the Artistic Director of the 2011 Leeds Lieder+ Festival.

Booklet for Brahms & Wolf: Lieder