“Eloquent and elegant as always, baritone Thomas Hampson launched a “Schubert Week” at the Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin with a solo recital. Together with his longtime accompanist Wolfram Rieger, they performed Schubert Lieder that were far from mainstream and showcased the high art of this genre.

The pièce de résistance was the approximately 20-minute long ballad Der Taucher (The Diver) with text written by Friedrich Schiller in 1797… Hampson, justly famous for his excellent diction, used this long ballad as a consummate storyteller, with dramatic phrasing and pauses just long enough to hold his public in suspense until the bitter end.”

Bachtrack