United Kingdom Oxford Lieder Festival 2022 [8] – Brahms, Schumann, Schubert: Christoph Prégardien (tenor), Michael Gees (piano). St John the Evangelist Church, Oxford, 26.10.2022. (CR)
Brahms – Dein blaues Auge, Op.59 No.8; Von ewiger Liebe, Op.43 No.1, Feldeinsamkeit, Op.86 No.2; Wie rafft’ ich mich auf in der Nacht, Op.32 No.1; Auf dem Kirchhofe, Op.105 No.4
Mahler – Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen
Schubert – Auf Der Bruck’, D853; Im Abendrot, D799; Rastlose Liebe, D138; Lied des gefangenen Jägers, D843; An die Türen will ich schleichen, D478c; Der Wanderer, D649; Der Wanderer an den Mond, D870; Der Einsame, D800; Der Schiffer, D536; An Schwager Kronos, D369; Der Doppelgänger, D957 No. 13; Nacht und Träume, D827
Christoph Prégardien was because of be joined by his son, Julian, for this recital, including a familial dimension to the Oxford Lieder Festival’s theme of ‘friendship in song’ this yr. As the latter was unwell, that left Prégardien père alone on the platform, with Michael Gees – nonetheless hardly a prospect to be sniffed at! The programme was thematically nicely devised in that includes songs by three composers, largely about love – sometimes fulfilled, however primarily aggravated, thwarted or betrayed – and a few of them aptly set towards a backdrop of darkish, stormy climate, appropriately chosen for this late October night time.
Perhaps probably the most conspicuous achievement on this recital, fairly apart from any particular person felicities particularly songs or phrases, was Prégardien’s constantly assured projection and actual diction, sustained throughout the entire programme in order that it was related by a deeply musical unity, regardless of the various repertoire from the stylistically assorted composers. A number of barely strained excessive notes within the first few songs hardly mattered and ceased in a while in any case (as demonstrated within the ringing readability tellingly held on ‘Sonnenschein’ in Mahler’s ‘Ging heut’ morgen über’s Feld’). Otherwise there was a reliable solidity in tone all through, which blended particularly nicely with the wealthy center register of the Steinway piano when voice and instrument hovered across the similar tessitura, not least in order to grasp in sound the nice and cozy glow of night eulogised in Schubert’s ‘Im Abendrot’. Prégardien’s exact intonation additionally made an arresting impact the place the melody took an sudden flip as within the flattened sevenths which happen in the direction of the tip of Brahms’s ‘Von ewiger Liebe’, or once more within the center part of Mahler’s ‘Die zwei blauen Augen von meinem Schatz’ because the vocal line performs round exquisitely with the tonal ambiguity of the piano half which shifts backwards and forwards from main to minor.
Gees’s taking part in was all the time considerate, setting an apt environment and tempo for each track, and so making of every one, alongside Prégardien, a enormously involving drama. The Brahms songs all emerged darkly, however warmly, instilling a temper of concentrated introversion usually; and notably a spellbound stillness for ‘Feldeinsamkeit’, or an indefatigable tread like a funeral march for the singer’s survey of a graveyard for ‘Auf dem Kirchhofe’. The latter was made all of the extra compelling by Prégardien’s solemn supply of its last two strains (observing how the useless are launched from the world’s travails) like a chorale or as if looking forward to the religious earnestness of the identical composer’s Four Serious Songs.
Both performers introduced a special vary of colors to Mahler’s cycle, evoking one thing of the broader expressive prospects of the composer’s later model for orchestra, such because the pressing opening of ‘Wenn mein Schatz Hochzeit macht’ giving method to an ironic little waltz within the center, or the nonetheless extra pained desperation of ‘Ich’ hab ein gluhend Messer’, ending in strains from Prégardien which had been as a lot shouted or declaimed as sung, in agonised frustration. ‘Die zwei blauen Augen’ was delivered as if a lethal solemn march.
The sequence of Schubert songs opened with a agency jolt from the piano, sweeping up each instrumental and vocal components and driving them powerfully by way of Schubert’s galloping setting of verse which recounts a lover briskly driving to his beloved on a horse, with components of ‘Erlkönig’ concerning the music, however with out the tragedy. A equally vigorous pressure continued by way of the subsequent few songs, till the primary Wanderer’s imaginative and prescient of the moon was met with a quiet, nonetheless solemnity, somewhat than unduly portentous, and ‘Der Wanderer an den Mond’ had an attractively wry briskness to it. ‘Der Einsame’ captured each a way of humour, and the thoughtfulness of the speaker as he kind of holds a dialog with himself concerning the pleasures of his solitary state of affairs. ‘An Schwager Kronos’ was a stern deal with by Prégardien, with uncompromising help from the piano, earlier than a devastatingly nonetheless however horrified depth got here from each for ‘Der Doppelgänger’, from Schwanengesang, certainly one of the crucial dramatic of all Schubert’s 600 and extra songs.
Concluding the recital formally, a rapt, broad efficiency of ‘Nacht und Träume’ (its opening chord following on kind of immediately from ‘Der Doppelgänger’) continued the nocturnal theme, however now providing relaxation and catharsis, with Gees’s gently rocking accompaniment and Prégardien’s completely safe line. As an encore they gave a fairly strenuous rendition of Schubert’s ‘An mein Herz’, D860, nervously clipped at first, however growing with implacable stride by way of its verses to the tip. That set the seal on a exceptional recital, inciting this reviewer to a few glasses of wine within the nearest public home instantly afterwards to come back again right down to earth!
Curtis Rogers