This Evening of German Song was an end of term
party to showcase English National Opera's Jerwood Young Singers
Programme, a marvellous project based upon USA models, still unique
in UK. Eight young singers of proven excellence are pursuing intensive,
individualised training under ENO auspices for up to three years, the
programme integrated into the working life of the Coliseum. This concert
was the culmination of a series of private Master Classes with Wolfram
Rieger, with the German language coaching under Hildburg Williams.
It was not a competition, and criticism of individual
singers in their brief solo spots would be inappropriate. Before the
interval, Rieger was still very much in the driving seat, rather as
if the master class was still continuing. He is a totally equipped virtuoso
pianist with a broad, imaginative knowledge of the lieder repertoire,
so much so that in Schubert especially he was constantly making points,
whether in phrasing, extremes of rubato, often urging the tempo forward
and an enviable, orchestral command of dynamics and tonal palate. The
next stage in their maturation will be for these singers to 'seize'
their songs and claim them as their own. The lessons with Rieger will
have stretched their musical imaginations wonderfully - next they may
need to bear in mind Menuhin's teaching maxim, which was to explore
expressive possibilities to the utmost during study, and then for performance
refine them back to a level which falls short of exaggeration.
The standard of singing was impressively high, and
its scale well adapted to the supportive and flattering Wigmore Hall
acoustic. A few of the eight still need to work a little more on their
German diction and one or two of them showed some tension as a little
vocal strain at first, but everyone relaxed and after the interval the
very interesting Strauss selection went particularly well, with a more
equal partnership between singers and pianist. We heard the quirky Ophelia
songs Op 67 and the sly, witty Schlagende Herzen Op 29/2; the
introduction to the exemplary programme book, with all words and translations,
of course, told us about Strauss's eccentric singer wife Pauline, for
whom they were written, and who was not averse to upstaging her husband
by inviting applause whilst he was still involved in a complex piano
postlude! No risk, nor possibility, of Wolfram Rieger finding himself
upstaged at the Wigmore Hall.
We will be looking out for these singers on the opera
stage - hoping that the vast Coliseum will not tend to coarsen their
singing. Some too-little known quartets by Schubert and Schumann framed
the two halves of the programme ideally, before a Schubert encore which
involved everybody.
With Malcolm Martineau on top form with
Magdalena Kožená a few days before, this had been an exceptional
week to savour the art of song accompanying at its highest, and the
evening really belonged to Wolfram Rieger as pianist and artistic facilitator
of an evening which left the audience happy and invigorated before returning
to the Oxford Street pre-Christmas melée outside.
Peter Grahame Woolf
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