Steve Smith on Bernarda Fink

"Ms. Fink’s latest CD is devoted to songs by Schumann, performed with the stylish, keenly responsive pianist Anthony Spiri. So it was no surprise that when Ms. Fink and Mr. Spiri performed at Alice Tully Hall on Sunday evening in Lincoln Center’s Art of the Song series, the first half of their program dipped into the same repertory. … The selling point of Ms. Fink’s new disc may well be her gorgeous rendition of the well-known song cycle 'Liederkreis' (Op. 39). But in her concert she focused on less familiar material from the disc. It was a smart move, since those selections — five songs on poems by Friedrich Rückert, five from the collection 'Myrthen' and a final group based on texts attributed to Mary Stuart — showed both Schumann and Ms. Fink at work in varying expressive modes, warding off any risk of stylistic monotony. The Rückert group displayed Ms. Fink’s warm tone, ample range and textual insight. … Ms. Fink was a stirring storyteller in the selections from 'Myrthen,' based on heroic poems by Robert Burns, and brought a rapt concentration to the 'Maria Stuart Lieder,' spare, enigmatic laments composed just before Schumann’s final breakdown" ("Music Review: Bernarda Fink," New York Times, 1/26/10).