RECORDS / New Release: Berg / Korngold / Strauss Lieder - Anne Sofie von Otter / Bengt Forsberg (Deutsche Grammophon, CD)

Last year's von Otter / Forsberg disc of Grieg songs was the release of 1993 for almost every voice enthusiast, not least the judges of the Gramophone Awards; and this superlative triple take on Austro-German late Romanticism is a worthy successor: fulsomely confident in the Strauss, stiflingly luxuriant in the Korngold, straining at the seams of tonality in the Berg. Von Otter creams the sound with an inviting warmth supported by musicianship of clarity and eloquence; Forsberg's pianism is imaginative and alive; and if you don't know the Korngold songs (not exactly standard repertory) their churning chromaticism will either stir your soul into reverie or your stomach into nausea. For me it was the soul.