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On 'Selige Stunde,' Jonas Kauffman and Helmut Deutsch bounce like precisely synchronized trampolinists / LIMELIGHT

With concert halls, studios and airports closed the pandemic has forced Jonas Kauffman to downsize from belts and braces Otello and sumptuous Viennese tributes to something smaller and closer to home. So, he got in touch with his old mate pianist Helmut Deutsch and suggested they make a welcome return to their neglected Lieder repertoire. They put together a running order – "It's our own personal wish list, you might call it an album of encores," Kaufmann says.

Kaufmann and Deutsch bounce like precisely synchronised trampolinists on Schubert's Der Musensohn, which opens the disc. And they manage a spacious sotto voce sense of wonder for Gustav Mahler's Ich Bin der Welt Abhanden Gekommen(I Am Lost to the World) to finish this lovely collection, most of which is on the gentler side, allowing the listener to enjoy Kaufmann's subtle nuances. Deutsch, predictably, never puts a foot wrong.

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