The Times, 17 August 2001

Schumann: Four songs from Opus 35 and Dichterliebe Opus 48; Liszt: Three Petrarch Sonnets (1838 versions); Richard Strauss: Six songs

JONAS KAUFMANN. Queen's Hall

…. But it was preceded by a wonderful morning, Jonas Kaufmann's UK recital debut. He is officially a tenor, but sounds like a baritone -warmly coloured, fruitily substantial tone -with a top, a baritenor maybe. Whatever he is, he is a most vivid communicator, colouring words and notes without the nudge-wink sense of "editing" of some Lieder singers of the past, and without ever compromising unbroken musical lines. He made you listen to Schumann's Dichterliebe as if you were hearing it for the first time, living every single bar of it. He was less at home with Liszt's settings of Petrarch in Italian, but struck form with a Strauss group, making the good songs sound as good as they are, and the less good ones better than we thought. A most remarkable artist.