“The great baritone Christian Immler, with his tight-grained sound and a vibrato of pure emotion […] This broad voice, with profuse harmonics, so quick to capture the emotion of the words […] What a pleasure to find it again with Schumann , whose shadows and impulses seem as one substance with its very timbre, the words on the edge of the lips, the breath that colours with emotion and feelings work wonders. […] And Jörg Widmann ‘s cycle in coda? Strange, but hardly surprising, to note how his songs blend seamlessly with those of Schumann […] Magnificent addition to this unfortunately increasingly reduced field of contemporary  lied.”

“The great baritone Christian Immler, with his tight-grained sound and a vibrato of pure emotion […] This broad voice, with profuse harmonics, so quick to capture the emotion of the words […] What a pleasure to find it again with Schumann , whose shadows and impulses seem as one substance with its very timbre, the words on the edge of the lips, the breath that colours with emotion and feelings work wonders. […] And Jörg Widmann ‘s cycle in coda? Strange, but hardly surprising, to note how his songs blend seamlessly with those of Schumann […] Magnificent addition to this unfortunately increasingly reduced field of contemporary  lied.”

Immler put bite into both his sung and spoken lines, adding an occasional flourish like a subtle echo effect [and] also did heroic work imbuing disjointed, impressionistic lyrics with powerful emotional expression.

Baritone soloist Christian Immler has a natural presence, expressive with balance. His rich, powerful, sometimes deep voice easily radiates into the hall. His long, yet precise phrasing is enhanced by a very pleasantly careful diction.

From the beginning, Christian Immler is thrilling as the Hermit. The sonorous quality of his bass radiates a dignified calm and the beauty and evenness of his voices encapsulates the spiritual grandeur of the Christian admonisher.

Dominating the whole work, Christian Immler is Saul, whom he lives with singular intensity. Everything is there for this perilous role, where the king, imbued with his power, jealous, angry, calculating, dark in a murderous madness: voice sound in all registers, well stamped, projected at will. His dramatic commitment is exemplary.

Christian Immler was an appropriately omniscient mystic who also boomed the voice of Samiel over spectral amplification in the bullet-forging scene. “Er oder du” could have been Verdi’s Grand Inquisiteur. Bringing hermetic wisdom to determine Max’s fate, “Wer legt auf ihn so strengen Bann?” had dramatic gravitas with a resonant low B-flat. The Sarastro-like “Leicht kann des Frommen Herz” monologue had a Talvela-ish low A-natural and the fortissimo “Wer höb’ den ersten Stein wohl auf?” was redolent of Jim Bakker televangelist hectoring.