Album review: Wolfgang Holzmair (baritone), Felicity Lott (soprano), Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano ,Giuseppe Verdi/John Axelrod – Brahms Beloved

Brahms and Clara Schumann first met when he was 20 and she 34, successful, married –to the composer Robert Schumann – and a mother. Their lifelong friendship survived his early romantic attachment, and she became one of his most important creative supports. John Axelrod has been celebrating this special relationship by coupling performances of Brahms's symphonies – here the First and Third – with recordings of Clara's songs. Axelrod's approach to the symphonies is intelligent and fervent, and his Italian orchestra captures well the surge and sweep of the writing, especially in the First. Ten of Clara's songs are also beautifully, artfully done, with Holzmair and Lott sensitively accompanied by Axelrod on piano. url.ie/uay0