WHERE ONLY STARS CAN HEAR US: Schubert Songs

Critical Acclaim for Where Only Stars Can Hear Us:

NEW YORK TIMES:

25 BEST CLASSICAL MUSIC TRACKS OF 2020 - Des Fischers Liebesglück
”Intimate, sweet-toned and more easily given to dry humor than its powerful keyboard successors, the fortepiano should be a natural choice for Schubert lieder. Yet recordings such as this exquisitely personal recital — with the clear-voiced tenor Karim Sulayman and the sensitive pianist Yi-heng Yang — are still rare. Listen to them weave a storyteller’s spell in this song about a nighttime tryst in a fishing boat, and marvel at the emotional arc they weave with the simplest of gestures.”

(read full article here)

Opera News:

CRITIC’S CHOICE
“…pure, ingenuous beauty… Sulayman’s fervent singing, in fact, perfectly embodies the aching combination of pain and happiness that’s Schubert’s specialty… Yi-heng Yang, Sulayman’s exquisite collaborator, tosses off the carpal-tunnel-inducing accompaniment to Erlkönig as if it were a lark, expertly underscoring the tenor’s hair-raising vocal characterizations. In general she is a full partner in the excavation of the soul that is the primary mission of both Schubert and Sulayman… Particularly in the current dismaying climate, Sulayman and Yang’s lovingly assembled album comes off as a generous humanitarian gift as much as a purely musical one.”

(read the full review here)

Early Music America:

“…a compelling collection of Schubert songs… Schubert was a master of song with an uncanny ability to make poetry shimmer just a little differently through the prism of his music. Sulayman shares a similar gift: a knack for gleaning what is most important in a text, perhaps a line or a word, and enveloping it in a special shade of vocal color… Sulayman’s voice is warm and beautiful, and he’s an engaging actor who can bring life to multiple characters within a single song. He subtly differentiates the reaper, the fisherman, and the huntsman in Alinde, and his Erlking moves from beguiling to truly terrifying. With her remarkable expressivity and technique, Yang reels you in during her solo passages… The music is sublime, the performances masterful, the overall concept striking.”

(read the full review here)

Gramophone Magazine (UK):

“[The fortepiano] certainly has a beguilingly gentle and human sound – beautifully captured by the engineers. Yang, moreover, is superbly adept at bringing out the many veiled shades it can produce… The two performers have also put together a superb programme, one that explores themes of being lost, alone and seeking solace and guidance in nature… Sulayman is always engaging, with an appealing honesty to his approach and a vividness to his storytelling (his ‘Erlkönig’ is powerfully effective)… a great deal to enjoy in these performances, with highlights including a bright, sparkling ‘Forelle’, a delightful ‘Alinde’ and an enchanting ‘Nacht und Träume’. There are fine accounts of the substantial ‘Des Fischers Liebesglück’ and ‘Der Winterabend’, too, with the latter especially haunting.”

(read the full review here)

MusicWeb International (UK):

“Yi-heng Yang and Karim Sulayman’s own Schubert journey is attractive and thought provoking … Sulayman has a well-schooled, flexible and beautiful lyric tenor voice at his disposal, with a rich and varied supply of nuances. His enunciation is impeccable, he is involved in what he is singing and he is a good story-teller. Listen to his Die Forelle, a song everybody has heard umpteen times, but his reading of it makes it come to new life. In the same section the lesser-known Des Fischers Liebesglück, with its staccato like text sung with the most excellent legato, will probably catch the interest from the outset through his involvement and curiosity – what comes next? – and towards the end absolutely enthralling soft singing. The third song in the group, Am Meer from Schwanengesang – one of the greatest and most touching songs Schubert ever penned – also shows that he has both power and intensity, but most of all involvement. And this is typical for the whole cycle: Each song is characterised according to its text and still one has a strong feeling that all eighteen constitute a unit. He juxtaposes the little known idyllic Der Vater mit dem Kind with the chilling thriller Erlkönig to staggering effect. In Goethe’s ballad he characterises the four “roles” extremely well without exaggerations and in particular the growing despair of the child is heart-rending to hear … savour the exceptional sensitivity of Karim Sulayman and Yi-heng Yang.”

(read the full review here)

Opus Klassiek (Netherlands):

“Karim Sulayman combines a beautiful vocal vocabulary with great imagination and that is always a good start in this repertoire. We are dealing with a powerful personality in art song who, with his beautiful tenor voice, is capable of both strong expressive accents and a fluid legato... Yi-heng Yang is, after Gerald Moore, the 'unashamed pianist' who not only elicits the most beautiful sound imaginable from the Vienna fortepiano by Joseph Simon (1830), but also provides the singer with catchy instrumental commentary and where appropriate takes the initiative. It has produced an ideal duo that constantly captures attention... On the back of the cover is a sentence that has become of special significance at this time: "Sometimes all we need is a reminder that we are not alone."”

(Translated from Dutch - read the full review here)

San Francisco Classical Voice:

“Sulayman possesses one of the most lovely, gentle, sweet, and sincere tenor voices on record... sung and played to tripping perfection — his sound is so unfailingly fetching and delightful… Then again, Sulayman surprises with an extremely impassioned, full voiced Erlkönig that proves that he really can get going when he wants to… At a time when we can use all the hope we can get, Sulayman and Yang’s Schubert is balm for the soul as well as the ear.”

(read the full review here)

American Record Guide:

“It is a smartly designed program… Both artists have brought these songs to life with imagination and sensitivity… Their approach to lieder may be very much in the style of what the listeners heard in the intimate Schubertiades of the composer’s time. Sulayman’s tone is sweet and pleasant, with sufficient tonal coloring… he distinguishes the strophes with subtle nuance and inflection… it allows a nice intimacy with the songs that you don’t always get…Sulayman writes in his notes that he and Yang sought to create ‘a program for our time to address the solitude that we are feeling right now’… with COVID-19 looming over us, his words have special meaning.”

El Nuevo Herald:

“Equipped with good taste and imagination, Sulayman and Yang design their own Schubertian cycle… creating a recital like a refreshing breeze which passes so fast that one asks for more… the magic of both performers works as a healing balm dispelling all darkness, creating a necessary intimacy often elusive in other better known singers… Sulayman conquers from the start, with immaculate diction and the urgency required to advance in the story that will include a remarkable version of Am Meer  as well as the famous Die Forelle that takes on unusual liveliness and drama in the luminous metal of the voice of the tenor whose debut album last year won the Grammy Award… In short, the Sulayman-Yang team combines the vocal luminosity of the tenor and the aged sound of the old fortepiano for an unforgettable recital that literally glides on a journey from the romantic night to the spring freshness praised by the poets of the period. Ideal for this time of reflection and meditation, to connect with our most intimate selves and inner universes.”

(Translated from Spanish - read the full review here)

Opera Lounge (Germany):

“In terms of timbre, his tenor has a lot to offer... This singer is not looking for beauty, but for truthfulness in expression.”

(Translated from German - read the full review here)

Allmusic.com:

“Sulayman has specialized mostly in Baroque music, and he aims for, and delivers, sheer beauty of tone. It's well suited to this collection of Schubert songs, many of which deal with nocturnal themes and, for the most part, are not terribly common items.  As a star vehicle, the collection works well…at no point is Sulayman anything less than attractive to listen to, and the quietly confident accompaniment work of Yi-heng Yang is another positive.” 

(read the full review here)

Exclusive Magazine:

“Opening with the stoic, yet breathtakingly generous 'Lied eines Schiffers an die Dioskuren,' progressing on through with such works as [‘Die Sterne,’ ‘Alinde,’ ‘An den Mond,’ and ‘Abendbilder’] showcase the best of this Sulayman and Yang partnership.

Add to that the brilliance of 'Der Winterabend,' with the album rounding out with the euphoric nature of both 'Nachtgesang' and 'Das Rosenband,' and the combination of the velvety tenor and the sublimely skilled pianist culminates a collection of astonishing skill and class to the utmost perfection.”

The Classical Music Geek:

This Schubert has its priorities straight. Text comes first in Sulayman's interpretations. The small inflections in his timbre convey textual themes equally well to audiences of all German-speaking levels… From the seemingly bratty child in Erlkönig, to the poignantly longing fisherman of Des Fischers Liebesglück, he is an actor first… But, of course, that's not to detract from his voice, clear and transparent. He barely covers his sound, allowing every ounce of that underlying emotion to shine through -- have you ever heard what a smile sounds like? Now I have… [Sulayman and Yang] work symbiotically, melding the intense drama from each of their parts into a composite, deeply affecting pathos… an unstoppable Schubert duo.”

(read the full review here)

Available on all platforms!