Bernarda Fink has the goods. The Argentinean mezzo soprano had turned in fabulous recordings before -- remember her passionately controlled Scena di Berenice by
Haydn and her fervently sincere Sesto from La Clemenza di Tito by
Mozart? -- but they can't match her disc of
Brahms' songs. In fact, not even
Fink's earlier discs of songs by
Schumann,
Wolf, and
Dvorák, good as they were -- and the
Wolf disc was very good -- can beat this
Brahms disc. The ardent warmth of
Brahms' melodies, the artful simplicity of his settings, and the direct sentimentality of his tone suit
Fink's temperament from top to bottom, and, characterization-wise, her performances are always right on the money. Take her Der Gang zum Liebchen: doesn't she sound like a lover going to meet her lover? Or her Feldeinsamkeit: doesn't she sound like someone who's lost in the clouds? Or, maybe best of all, take her Wiegenlied: doesn't she sound like a mother singing to a baby? Just listen to
Fink's sweet vibrato, to her supple lines, to her knowing phrasing, to her absolute aesthetic honesty -- whatever you want in a
Brahms singer, she's got it. Accompanied by supremely skillful pianist Roger Vignoles and recorded in superlatively faithful sound by
Martin Sauer in Teldex Studio,
Fink's disc is a
Brahms' recital to treasure forever.