This 2024 release, which hit classical best-seller charts in the spring of that year, completes the trilogy of 's big three song cycles by rising baritone . This recording was made in 2019, prior to those of (made in ), and ). Yet in the ordering in which they have been released, the grim , makes a convincing finale. This speaks well of 's ability to think through these complex song cycles; one might quibble with an individual interpretation or two, but he is undeniably very strong throughout, and he has delivered some of the premier readings of our time. His is emotive but not inward and wonderfully controlled. is a bit operatic, seeming to be in conversation with the crow in , but he yields to no one in introspection with the deep inwardness of and its wild chromatic modulations. There is a lot of intensity in most of 's readings, and accompanist is sensitive to their ebb and flow. However, he is able to leave limpid melody alone, where it occurs in and elsewhere. Once again, has delivered that repays multiple hearings, and he is sounding more and more like one of the major baritones of the day. ~ James Manheim