…there is a good deal of pleasurable material, and this three-CD set provides a rare opportunity to hear a more relaxed, less heaven-storming Beethoven than the one to whom listeners are far more accustomed. Prey’s voice was not in its prime for these recordings—he was almost 60 years old when he made them—but most of the songs do not make huge vocal demands, and even when Prey sounds strained (especially in the upper register), he is expressive, and attentive to the nuances of the individual works. Pamela Coburn, who was only in her 30s at the time of these recordings, has a light, fresh voice that is not used often enough, and she is sometimes assigned songs that would seem more appropriate for a man (such as An Laura, 1790). For his part, Hokanson makes no attempt to give the piano a larger sound or bigger musical role than Beethoven intended, although when he does have the chance to hold forth a bit—as in the introduction to Hochzeitslied (1819)—he makes the most of it. This is likely to remain the definitive Beethoven song collection for some time to come. © 2012 Infodad.com Read complete review