Songs & Pno Quartets [CD]

"To the singer of the valley" is etched on a memorial stone for the composer Johann Gottlieb Naumann. It would be hard to pay him a more fitting tribute. Three dozen operas; nearly two dozen masses; Italian oratorios; a wealth of German sacred music as well as a fair amount of chamber music - the man from Blasewitz near Dresden; who enjoyed success at the Royal Swedish Opera before settling permanently in his hometown; knew more than just how to sing on stage and in church. His collections of songs for voice and piano are full of little gems that any of the muses would have fought over. Marie Luise Werneburg and her accompanist Sebastian Knebel have compiled just such a programme here: tastefully interwoven with three small-scale quartets; the songs transport the listener to intimate salons where domestic music making grew into an increasingly powerful medium.