Classical Briefs
May 3, 1998, Sunday
Arts and Leisure Desk
By DAVID MERMELSTEIN
BRAHMS, SIBELIUS, STENHAMMAR: SONGS
Hakan Hagegard, baritone; Warren Jones, piano. RCA Victor 09026-68097-2; CD.
Though the lyric voice of the Swedish baritone Hakan Hagegard has darkened over the years, it remains bright and agile. Here, in recordings made nearly five years ago but just issued, Mr. Hagegard employs his considerable powers in music well suited to his gifts.
The five familiar Brahms songs of heartbreak that open this disk are warmly projected and keenly interpreted. In these lively accounts, Mr. Hagegard seems to be singing directly to the listener. His vocalism becomes even more animated in the eight Sibelius songs that follow. "Until the Evening," for instance, sparkles, and "Rushes, Whisper!" benefits enormously from the contrast between Mr. Hagegard's sotto voce work and his ringing cries.
But the Stenhammar songs are the revelation. In four items, Mr. Hagegard opens whole vistas. His "Prince Aladdin of the Lamp" is achingly harrowing, and he conveys the romance in "Florez and Blanzeflor" with abiding tenderness.
Brahms's "Four Serious Songs" close the CD, and though the competition is stiff (from Alexander Kipnis and Hans Hotter, at least), Mr. Hagegard brings fitting solemnity and fresh passion to the music.
Warren Jones, an accompanist of uncommon talent, supports the singer in the best possible way, by amplifying Mr. Hagegard's expressiveness without ever stymying his own. DAVID MERMELSTEIN
