"Not only did I not review Johannes Martin Kränzle’s Romantic Ballads, neither did anyone else at Fanfare. I only heard of it because an online friend wrote me and said, “You have got to hear this guy. He’s terrific!” And he is. A good-sized, warm, rich German baritone voice with surprisingly strong low notes and, even more surprisingly, a flicker-vibrato of a type you never hear any more. But even better than the voice, Kränzle is a remarkable interpreter, digging into these songs with the kind of old-fashioned, heart-on-sleeve relish you used to hear from singers of the pre-Fischer-Dieskau era like Slezak, Kipnis, Tibbett, and young Hotter. Let’s put it this way: Any modern singer with the chutzpah to include such chestnuts as Edward, Erl-King, The Two Grenadiers, and Revelge on his first Lieder recital, and deliver performances that make you want to stand up and cheer, is someone special. Hilko Dumno, a superb pianist, contributes equally to this disc’s quality. As a bonus, listen to the way Kränzle spins humor and endless breath control through the lines of Hochzeitlied."
