Capriccio – Barbican Centre, London

„In fact, Schwanewilms was simply magnificent. (…) It was in fact the perfect complement to Schwanewilms’ stunningly pure, powerful voice, a sound in itself perfectly Straussian.  Schwanewilms’ tuning was also impeccable, but what shone out like a laser beam was her clear and intuitive understanding of the import of the Countess’s final moments in the opera.

The outpourings of the central part of the excerpt revealed a true Strauss soprano. In the full voice of the later stages Schwanewilms was simply mesmeric; yet her unfolding of “Du Spiegelbild” was as delicate as a thread of spun gold.“

Seen and Heard International, Colin Clarke, November 14, 2015