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The Guardian, 19 Feb 2018
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Tim Ashley |
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Wolf: Italienisches Liederbuch, London, 16. Februar 2018 |
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Jonas Kaufmann, Diana Damrau and Helmut Deutsch deliver a brilliantly introspective take on Wolf’s Italienisches Liederbuch
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Hugo Wolf considered his Italienisches Liederbuch the most perfect of his
own works. Written for soprano and baritone, its 46 songs constitute a
probing meditation, by turns funny, ecstatic and profoundly sad, on love.
However, it’s not so much a unified cycle as a collection, which in turn
allows interpreters considerable latitude with running order and the
transposition of songs to suit individual singers. Jonas Kaufmann has
recently taken the work into his repertory, and is now touring Europe with
it, joined by soprano Diana Damrau and pianist Helmut Deutsch.
The
songs are reordered in four groups, each of which constitutes a dramatic
dialogue, sharply differentiated in mood. Some of the platform business as
they sparred, made up and finally separated was unduly fussy, and it was
perhaps only in the third group – reflecting on transience and mortality –
that they achieved the requisite stillness to allow the music to speak fully
for itself.
They sang magnificently, however. Damrau’s overt
brilliance ideally foils Kaufmann’s introspection. Her tone has acquired a
touch of metal of late and can turn shrill under pressure, but her
immaculate way with words allows her to expose levels of vulnerability
behind the bravado and wit of many of her songs. The lyrical intensity of
Kaufmann’s singing suits Wolf uncommonly well. Nothing sounds forced or
over-declamatory: Sterb’ ich so hüllt in Blumen meine Glieder, all
wonderfully shaded pianissimos, became the emotional fulcrum around which
the whole interpretation swung. Deutsch’s playing was admirable in its
understatement, meanwhile, with every note and shift in colour of Wolf’s
complex accompaniments speaking volumes.
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