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The New York Times, FEB. 21, 2014 |
By ANTHONY TOMMASINI |
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Recital: Carnegie Hall, 20. Februar 2014 |
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A Tenor Finds Energy for Intense, Lyrical Pain
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Photo: Ruby Washington/The New York Times |
Jonas Kaufmann in Recital at Carnegie Hall |
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Most tenors, after singing the challenging title role of Massenet’s
“Werther,” especially for the high-pressured opening night of a new
production at the Metropolitan Opera, would welcome a few days of rest.
Not the tireless German tenor Jonas Kaufmann. On Thursday night, two
days after he triumphed as Werther in the Met’s new production, Mr. Kaufmann
made his Carnegie Hall recital debut. Joined by his longtime accompanist,
the refined Austrian pianist Helmut Deutsch, Mr. Kaufmann sang a substantive
program of songs by Schumann, Wagner and Liszt and had enough stamina and
voice left for six encores.
Though Mr. Kaufmann may be the most
sought-after tenor in opera right now, he has always made a place in his
career for song, especially German lieder. His latest recording (on Sony
Classical) is Schubert’s “Winterreise” song cycle, with Mr. Deutsch.
Many singers have trouble adapting their operatic voices to the more
intimate art of the song recital. And song programs are more suited to
places much smaller than Carnegie Hall.
Mr. Kaufmann certainly let
his dark, virile voice soar during dramatically intense outbursts of
particular songs. But the most transfixing moments came during the most
intimate passages, when he sang with light, floated lyricism and aching
tenderness.
He opened with five lesser-heard songs from Schumann’s
“Zwölf Gedichte,” settings of poems by Justinus Kerner. He brought exquisite
poignancy to “Erstes Grün” (“First Green”), in which a bereft young man
seeks solace from the fresh grass.
He next turned to Schumann’s song
cycle “Dichterliebe” (“A Poet’s Love”). Many singers present this familiar
work almost as a dramatic soliloquy, enacting the pained feelings in the
words (by the poet Heinrich Heine) and the music. But a song recital is also
a kind of musicalized poetry reading, and Mr. Kaufmann’s performance was
ennobled by poetic elegance and restraint. I have seldom listened to the
words of these poems so intently.
In the opening song, “Im
wunderschönen Monat Mai” (“In the glorious month of May”), Mr. Kaufmann,
accompanied with milky sound and flowing grace by Mr. Deutsch, made the
words vivid while conveying the protagonist’s bliss, touched with confusion,
over recollections of love confided amid the splendors of spring. Is this
love doomed? Already over? We are about to learn more. Rather than bristling
with bitterness over his lover’s coldness during “Ich grolle nicht” (“I bear
no grudge”), Mr. Kaufmann delivered the song like a clinical indictment,
which made it more wrenching.
After intermission, he sang Wagner’s
“Wesendonck Lieder,” a work that was intended for a female voice. But Mr.
Kaufmann pointed out that the texts (love poems by Mathilde Wesendonck) have
“not a single indication of the gender of the ‘narrator.’ ” He is right.
Besides, whatever Wagner intended, my guess is the composer would have been
swept away by Mr. Kaufmann’s distinguished performance.
The program
ended with Mr. Kaufmann’s rhapsodic, ardent singing of Liszt’s “Tre sonetti
di Petrarca,” settings of Italian sonnets. The piano parts are rich with
rippling passagework and brilliant touches, impressively dispatched by Mr.
Deutsch.
Responding to repeated ovations, Mr. Kaufmann sang four
Richard Strauss songs for his first encores. Speaking to the audience, he
said that this was a Strauss year (the 150th anniversary of the composer’s
birth), and that since we are all now “fed up with Wagner and Verdi” after
their joint bicentennials last year, he was looking forward to singing lots
of Strauss, one of his favorite composers.
He also gave a dreamy
account of Schumann’s “Mondnacht,” and ended the evening with a popular song
from a Lehar operetta, “Gern hab ich die Frau’n geküsst,” repeating the
first verse in English: “Girls were made to love and kiss,/and who am I to
interfere with this?” The audience loved it.
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