Holliger \u2013 <\/strong>Elis Any recital from Christian Gerhaher is likely to be special; offering a range of quite unusual repertoire, Heinz Holliger\u2019s Lunea<\/em> written for and dedicated to Gerhaher, this was no exception. It opened, though, with a rare solo spot for Gerhaher\u2019s long-term collaborator, pianist Gerold Huber, and early (1961, revised 1966) Holliger. Gerhaher reading the three Georg Trakl texts on which Elis<\/em>\u2019s three short piano pieces, \u2018Verk\u00fcndigung des Todes\u2019, \u2018Todesangst und Gnade\u2019, and \u2018Himmelfahrt\u2019, are based, even providing his own English translation for the programme sheet. Strikingly post-Schoenbergian harmony characterised the first, though its musical gestures worked differently. The soundworld of the second sounded later, more post-Webern, if you will, indeed surely marked by Holliger\u2019s contemporary study with Boulez, albeit with a Germanic accent. \u2018Himmelfahrt\u2019, as its name might suggest, seemed in some sense both to reconcile and to go beyond. These aphoristic nocturnes emerged pregnant with emotion, gesture, and \u2013 who knows \u2013 perhaps \u2018meaning\u2019 too.<\/p>\n Hugo Wolf\u2019s Abendbilder<\/em> (again early, 1877) followed, without a break. In context, the piano prelude to the first of the three songs sounded Romantically consoling, yet not unrelated: an excellent starting point for our Wolfram von Eschenbach, sorry Gerhaher, to sing, the sincerity as well as beauty of his delivery striking from the outset, likewise command of detail without pedantry. All three Nikolaus Lenau \u2018pictures\u2019 rightly formed part of a greater whole, whilst happily going on their own, sometimes pastoral, ways. It was difficult not to marvel at the different shades and colours of Gerhaher\u2019s voice, poetically deployed, a sinking wanness as the sun set (\u2018Bald versinkt die Sonne\u2019), an example in point. Shades of Schumann and Liszt in language and performance contextualised without overwhelming.<\/p>\n We remained with Lenau for Holliger\u2019s Lunea<\/em>, written from 2009-10, though only premiered at Zurich\u2019s Opera House in 2013 (also the venue five years later for the premiere of Holliger\u2019s opera of the same name, featuring Gerhaher, reworking these settings \u2018like chorales in a Bach Passion\u2019). Notably more gestural than what we had previously heard, it yet remains \u2013 and, in performance, remained \u2013 within the noble Lied<\/em> tradition. Twenty-two Lenau sentences and a short poem, \u2018Einklang\u2019, in memory of Johann Baptist Mayrhofer form a striking cycle that must surely have won the composer new admirers here in London. Gerhaher\u2019s acuity of verbal and musical response seemed ideally suited. That range of colour was now married to a greater range of general delivery, sometimes unabashed song, sometimes recitation, often somewhere in between; extended piano techniques such as bowing the strings acted similarly. Searching melismata unsettled, lit up, even amused, as instances of wordpainting (\u2018Ein Tropfen im Stein\u2019) worked something like their traditional magic of recognition. Wonderfully nomadic harmony illuminated Lenau\u2019s W\u00fcstenwanderer<\/em>, prior to that neo-Schubertian postlude of \u2018Einklang\u2019.<\/p>\n I struggle to find Schumann\u2019s Lenau Husarenlieder<\/em> among his more compelling work, but they received stylish, commanding performances, with a fine degree, where required, of Schwung<\/em>. Rhythms were well-pointed, and Gerhaher, rightly, I think, permitted a word-driven approach. In a selection of six songs from Othmar Schoeck\u2019s Elegie<\/em>, four to texts by Lenau, Gerhaher imparted a strong sense, even in the others\u2019 absence, of its character as a whole, yet equally individual character to individual songs. Musical process was clear, courtesy above all of the piano, in \u2018Das Mondlicht\u2019. The performance as a whole was subtly surprising: no shocks, yet deeply satisfying provided one offered musical attention.<\/p>\n The final Schumann set showed the composer, at least some of the time, recapturing the infinitely touching spirit of his youth. Gerhaher and Huber offered plenty of variety in the opening, strophic blacksmith\u2019s song, but it was the ensuing \u2018Meine Rose\u2019 that played on the heartstrings. Was that perhaps a sense of Schumann influenced by Wagner, or simply memories of Gerhaher\u2019s Wolfram? At any rate, it brought tears to my eyes. So too did the sense of youthful anticipation in \u2018Die Sennin\u2019, whilst \u2018Einsamkeit\u2019 and \u2018Der schwere Abend\u2019 both turned from disquieting ambiguity to ultimate sadness. The final ardour of the strange \u2018Requiem\u2019, offered us flame that flickered both in defiance and reconciliation, perhaps like the Lied<\/em> tradition\u2019s persistence unto Holliger (and beyond?) \u2018Zweifeldner Wunsch\u2019 from Schoeck\u2019s Elegie<\/em> made for a fitting encore, concluding and continuing a line of subtle questioning.<\/p>\n Mark Berry<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n [ad_2]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [ad_1] United Kingdom Holliger, Wolf, R. Schumann, and Schoeck: Christian Gerhaher (baritone), Gerold Huber (piano). Wigmore Hall, London, 12.2.2023. (MB) Christian Gerhaher (baritone) and Gerold Huber (piano) \u00a9 Simon Jay Price Holliger \u2013 ElisWolf \u2013 AbendbilderHolliger \u2013 LuneaR. Schumann \u2013 Vier Husarenlieder, Op.117; Sechs Gedichte von N. Lenau und Requiem, Op.90Schoeck \u2013 Elegie, Op.36: \u2018An […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":66710,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-66708","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-theatre"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66708\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"United](\"https:\/\/seenandheard-international.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/world-flags\/images\/flags\/24\/gb.png\" "\\"United")
United Kingdom<\/span><\/span><\/span> Holliger, Wolf, R. Schumann, and Schoeck: <\/span><\/strong>Christian Gerhaher (baritone), Gerold Huber (piano). Wigmore Hall, London, 12.2.2023. (MB)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/seenandheard-international.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Christian-Gerhaher-at-Wigmore-Hall-c-Simon-Jay-Price_1-1-498x333.jpg\")
<\/em>Wolf \u2013 <\/strong>Abendbilder
<\/em>Holliger \u2013 <\/strong>Lunea
<\/em>R. Schumann \u2013 <\/strong>Vier Husarenlieder<\/em>, Op.117; Sechs Gedichte von N. Lenau und Requiem<\/em>, Op.90
Schoeck \u2013 <\/strong>Elegie<\/em>, Op.36: \u2018An den Wind\u2019; \u2018Herbstgef\u00fchl\u2019[ \u2018Verlorenes Gl\u00fcck\u2019; \u2018Das Mondlicht\u2019; \u2018Herbstentschluss\u2019; \u2018Welke Rose\u2019<\/p>\n