Alastair Miles

Richard Strauss - THE COMPLETE SONGS VOL.4 (Hyperion)

"It has to be said that with the first sound of Alastair Miles, one is immediately aware of a change, not merely in the quality and nature of the voice, but in its production too. ...Miles impresses deeply, down indeed to the depths of his low D flat."
Gramophone, June 2009

"The bass songs show Strauss once again in predominantly serious vein, and Alastair Miles brings a wonderful gravitas to his readings. Im Spätboot is a sober affair, but all the more affecting for its economy, not perhaps what one would expect from Strauss a year after Salome. The four songs from Op.87 are made up of three pensive and expansive Rückert settings (from 1929 and 1935), leavened with a boisterous, earlier setting of a poem from Goethe's West-östliche Diwan, Erschaffen und Beleben. Miles brings the same steady, authoritative delivery and seriousness of purpose to the Rückert, rising to the occasional emotional outbursts magnificently (particularly in the lovely Im Sonnenschein that finishes the disc), while he and Vignoles make the most of the sometimes arch humour of Erschaffen und Beleben."
musicalcriticism.com

"Alastair Miles's robust, sensitive bass excels in Im Spätboot, perfectly capturing the eerie dark atmosphere of Strauss's weary boat passenger."
The Times