“The Italian-language settings respond excellently to Mary Bevan’s silken, untroubled sound. This makes it a recital of two halves. Despite her beautiful voice – and it is truly beautiful: resonant, creamy and warm, refined and elegant – Bevan seems to float above the raw, heart-wrenching emotion in the German verses. Joseph Middleton’s assured, sensitive and technicolour playing tells a more insightful story.”
“Mary Bevan is not just an exceptionally fine soprano. She’s also a superb actress...Those dramatic qualities – and her keen care for diction – shine in her latest album...She is at her best in the sprinkling of Wolf’s Mörike Lieder, including an ecstatic ‘Gebet’...Middleton’s playing is always sensitive, never overwhelming the singer.”
“A singer with real dramatic power, much loved on the opera stage, Bevan gives heartfelt urgency to Arianna’s final Ah! Che morir vorrei (Ah! How I long to die). She and Middleton have devised an absorbing recital, predominantly of Schubert and Wolf, based on ideas of myth and divinity.”