And one to avoid…

Who thought it was a good idea for countertenors, especially English ones, to record this cycle? Yes, the work calls for a ‘high voice’. But most of these cloying, hooty horrors don’t bear thinking about in the German Romantic repertoire. Encountering the normally admirable Paul Esswood with Nicholas Mcgegan at what sounds like another school-gym fortepiano sent me scurrying for the earplugs.