Skovhus has already conquered many audiences by virtue of his handsome presence and fine voice. Now, in his first recital for Sony Classical, he has sensibly chosen Wolf's extrovert Eichendorff settings, just the thing for a young baritone to present himself to the disc-buying public in a favourable light. Lovers of good Lieder singing will surely respond eagerly to his bold and velvet-toned singing and welcome a disc of songs which are currently under-represented in the catalogue.
Eichendorff and Wolf are here predominantly outside, walking or riding along, and Wolf is free of the cares marking the Morike settings that went before in his opus. Skovhus is the Musician, Soldier, Sailor, Swashbuckler, Fortune-hunter and Scholar to the life. But he can also encompass a more thoughtful mood, as expressed in pieces such as Die Nacht, where his quiet singing is perfection, and Heimweh. As a whole, this collection is by no means as inspired as Wolf's later books, but we are never bored—at least not when in the company of Skovhus and his regular partner Helmut Deutsch, whose mastery of Wolf s intricate rhythms and harmonies is never less than masterly and he is recorded as an equal partner with the singer.
Four of Korngold's Eichendorff settings form a neat pendant to the Wolf. Although his version of Standchen is more obviously sentimental than Wolf's, it has its own character. Schneeglockchen is suffused in Debussian harmony (Op. 9 was composed in 1917), and the final song, written 30 years later, is peculiarly Korngoldian in its passing-note harmony and deliberately post-romantic idiom. The interpreters are just as subtle yet unexaggerated in their performing here as in the Wolf. Altogether this is a more-than-promising debut.
