On her PENTATONE debut album, young German star soprano Anna Lucia Richter explores the heart-wrenching, timeless and universal feeling of Heimweh (homesickness) through a collection of extraordinary Schubert songs. Richter approaches the notion of Heimweh from several perspectives: from that of queens, young girls and shepherds to that of soldiers, dwarfs and gravediggers.

The repertoire consists of the original, German-language version of Ave Maria, three Mignon songs (Nur wer die Sehnsucht kennt, Heiss micht nicht reden and So lasst mich scheinen), the sinister Der Zwerg, the expansive flower ballad Viola and many others. Richter is accompanied by pianist Gerold Huber, with whom she has formed a congenial Lieder tandem in the last years. They are joined by clarinetist Matthias Schorn on the final song of the program, the quasi concert aria Der Hirt auf dem Felsen.

REVIEWS:

The soprano Anna Lucia Richter has recorded a CD with a running time of almost eighty-one minutes. The program consists exclusively of songs by Franz Schubert. It begins with "To the Moon" and ends with "The Shepherd on the Rock". The CD was released by Pentatone (PTC 5186 839). On the beautifully rendered cover, the young singer falls from heaven like an angel from Tintoretto. It has become customary to place song productions under a specific theme; this time, it's about homesickness. A wide field, and Schubert and his lyricists promise a rich harvest. For the foreword in the booklet, the artist even consulted Grimm's dictionary and found out that the word homesickness entered general usage at the beginning of the 18th century. And she wonders if homesickness is "not actually the desire" to find something on the outside that can actually only be created on the inside.

The lyrical titles suit her better than the ballad-like “Zwerg”, in which the voice reaches its limits in the effort to colorfully embellish the dramatic events...the so-called flower ballad "Viola," based on a text by Schubert's friend Franz von Schober, consists of nineteen verses, which Richter joins together with a discreet design, so that the thirteen minutes fly by. This work is rarely heard and sounds like a major discovery in the context of the album. The singer, who impressively takes on a speaking part with the melodrama "Farewell from the Earth", elevates the entire recital.

-- Opera Lounge