' (or " ") are certainly among his lightest works, standing in stark contrast to the intricacies of his chamber music and his symphonies, but that doesn't mean that they are artless. The has a way with ' choral music, and that continues to be evident; a group of younger singers might have more pure charm, but few would bring the clarity that is heard here. The are inspired by folk music, but they are not folk music; the two sets differ substantially (the pieces in the second book avoid folkish melodies nearly completely and mostly include soloists). Conductor catches the precise weight of each piece and the flavor of the men-vs.-women dialogue around which many of the pieces in the first book are structured (it is a common feature of folk song and dance). Another attractive feature here is that the set of is broken up by , performed by the same four-hand piano duo of and that backs the choral pieces. It's easy to imagine that this might have been done in the 19th century. About the only complaint is 's sound, from the rather cavernous modern Buergerhaus in Neuenhagen near Berlin; its gymnasium-like sound (in the American sense, not the German) completely wrong for what was quintessentially domestic music. However, this is generally a strong recording of the , something that hasn't come along for a while. ~ James Manheim