Lieder

Soprano Fatma Said’s first two albums for Warner had a decidedly cross-cultural flavor, mixing classical repertoire with songs from her native Egypt and the Middle East. In Lieder, she focuses squarely on the German art-song tradition, but her approach is anything but predictable. Three different pianists accompany her in songs by Schubert, Mendelssohn, and Schumann, where the common denominator is Said’s vibrant tonal quality and her sharp response to text and character. The clarinetist Sabine Meyer features in a refreshingly buoyant take on Schubert’s “The Shepherd on the Rock,” while a male vocal ensemble joins Said in a delightful part song by the same composer. But it’s perhaps the songs by Brahms which make the most memorable impact. In one set, Said’s voice is draped by the exquisite accompaniments of harpist Anneleen Lenaerts, while in the succinct “Ophelia-Lieder” the string quartet textures of the Quatuor Arod leave a poignantly lyrical impression.