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EdinburghGuide, 15 August 2001 |
Philip Sawyer |
Schumann: Four songs from Opus 35 and Dichterliebe Opus 48; Liszt: Three
Petrarch Sonnets (1838 versions); Richard Strauss: Six songs
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Song and Piano Recital
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Queen's Hall |
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This
concert had the making of, and delivered a real treat: a tenor with real
intelligence and a burgeoning reputation, and an established pianist with a
background in composition and musicology. Here was good programme-planning;
here was real music-making; here was a real chamber music experience.
The recital began with four of Schumann's Opus 35 songs, dating from 1840,
the year of his marriage to Clara Wieck. These gradually revealed the range
of Kaufmann's voice and the considerable pianistic skills of Deutsch. By the
end of the fourth song the audience was fully engaged. Then followed
Schumann's Dichterliebe, another product of 1840. Here, in this justly
famous song-cycle, Kaufmann became the story-teller, never allowing the
music to become too dramatic and using subtle body-language to underscore
certain songs. Schumann's art is that of a pianist turned composer; in the
piano writing of his songs is found not only the singer's line but also a
musical commentary to the text. Deutsch revealed facets of the piano part
that many performances leave unexplored and used an enormous range of colour
and expressive rubato to complement Kaufmann's lines.
After the interval this spectacular pair of musicians performed three
Petrarch Sonnets by Liszt, in the early versions, dating from 1838, and six
songs by Richard Strauss. The Liszt gave Kaufmann the opportunity to show of
his almost Helden-Tenor qualities and showed Deutsch to be a pianist of no
little virtuosity; the range of the vocal part is extraordinary and the
piano part is 'orchestral'. The audience was taken into a different world of
experience, almost that that of Italian opera. The Strauss songs returned to
German Romanticism and were a beautifully-performed reminder of just how
much Strauss's music (he lived well into the 20th century) relies on the
early German Romantic world of Schumann.
It is a pity that these Queen's Hall recitals are heard only once. The
Kaufmann/Deutsch recital was worthy, for a number of very good reasons, of
being heard live by a much wider audience. |
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