Renata Pokupić, Roger Vignoles - Václav Jan Křtitel Tomášek - Songs (2015)

Václav Jan Krvtitel Tomásek wrote numerous songs and short piano pieces, genres in which his works predate those of his rather more famous near contemporary Franz Schubert by some years. Quite why they are so neglected today is a mystery as this enthralling new album from Renata Pokupic' and Roger Vignoles unfolds twenty-eight songs of a rare appeal. Perhaps we should not be surprised: Tomáek was one of the very few composers of Goethe settings to meet with the great poet's (relatively) undivided approval.

Czech composer Václav Tomásek was born more than two decades before Schubert and outlived him by a similar time, but is always destined to be eclipsed by him. If you want to know why, listen to Tomásek's setting of Erlkönig, one of many Goethe poems chosen by both composers: he proceeds at an uneasy but poised trot where Schubert hurtles, terrified. Yet even if Schubert is the superior composer, with a keener dramatic sense, many of Tomásek's songs are little gems in their own right, and you can hear why Goethe himself approved of settings including Heldenröslein, with its moment of uplift in the middle of each verse, and Wandrers Nachtlied, with its spare elegance. Renata Pokupi's supple, gleaming mezzo-soprano could use a notch more colour at times, but is eloquent nonetheless, and pianist Roger Vignoles makes each song sound its best. -- Guardian