Thorpe/Williams - Franz Schubert: Schwanengesang, Johannes Brahms: Acht Ziguenerlieder

Both of the song cycles recorded here combine lyricism with powerful storytelling, covering a wide range of emotions that are well suited to the beautiful sonorities and vocal nature of the French horn. Schubert's late Schwanengesang conveys its pastoral setting, messages of love, pain of separation and haunted loss so descriptively that the music is just as effective without words. Brahms arranged his Zigeunerlieder or Gypsy Songs from vocal quartets, their Hungarian folk music character lending themselves superbly to further transcription.