Ah, the draw of the Diva! Whilst last week's (reportedly
superb) Wigmore recital by the tenor Christoph Prégardien appears
not to have received a single notice, last night's concert seems set
to be a different story, since the galleys were loaded to the gunwales
(if you'll permit me such a [partially] mixed metaphor) with adoring
hacks. Susan Graham is clearly a lady with a besotted following,
and this recital offered ample evidence to account for it
From the moment she swept onto the platform in an
elegant black gown, you were aware that you were in the presence of
a star; here is a singer who knows how to run a recital, and whose communication
with the audience is natural, unforced and warm. Her choice of Brahms
'Zigeunerlieder' as an opening was not however, an absolutely happy
one, since it took her the first two songs to get into her stride, musically
speaking, but by 'Wisst ihr, wann' this opulent voice had found its
home, and she sang the touching phrases with real tenderness; at 'Schätzelein,du
bist mein, inniglich küss ich dich' singer and pianist achieved
an ideal blend of delicacy and ardour. The fact that Ms. Graham is 'the
real thing' was amply demonstrated in her wonderful management of the
difficult ascent to the A in 'Armes Herz, bleibt ihm ewig,ewig treu'
in 'Lieber Gott,' which she sang with gleaming tone and convincing emphasis.
Martineau's playing was completely at one with the singing, deeply sensitive
yet fiery when required, and the tiny postlude to 'Kommt dir manchmal
in den Sinn' was played with exquisite skill
Debussy's 'Proses Lyriques' is, to be quite candid,
a piece of music I could well live without, but if one has to hear it,
then Graham's singing and Martineau's playing of it must be as close
to perfection as one could possibly get. The 'lyrical prose' itself
is the kind of thing which I'd have been ashamed to have been offered
by the 19 year old members of the Creative Writing class I once ran,
but of course the language was what the composer needed for what he
wanted to write at the time, and the rippling piano parts and fluid
vocal lines gave plenty of opportunity for both singer and pianist to
shine
It does not remotely surprise me that the French government
has honoured Ms Graham with the distinction of Chevalier des Ordres
des Arts et des Lettres, since her singing of French is near perfect,
and we French speakers are mighty choosy when it comes to this sort
of thing. Her phrasing, the languid, caressing way she approaches certain
lines, and the lushness of her vowel sounds all reminded me of Janet
Baker; high praise indeed, and the way she combines astringency of tone
where required, with the mostrapturous, arching phrases when appropriate,
gave intense pleasure, asdid Martineau's virtuosic, supple, refined
playing
'Terrific - I adore her' was my first comment on being
asked what I thought at the interval, and that opinion lasted through
Berg's 'Seven Early Songs,' to which she brought limpid tone, wonderful
variety of vocal colouring (especially at Erklang die Nacht' in 'Traumgekrönt'
and 'Wie leise die Minuten zieh'n,' in 'Im Zimmer') and shapely phrasing
However, I was less struck with the rest of her programme, which consisted
of Poulenc's 'Quatre Poèmes de Guillaume Apollinaire' and pieces
by Messager and Moises Simons. For these later works she did give us
plenty of notice of the kind of style to be adopted; when a singer sheds
her chaste little black bolero top and replaces it with a feather boa,
the only place to go is nicky-nacky-noo land, and so it was to be
We got the whole shebang; sly glances, cutesy little
pouts, finger-wagging, and so on. Sigh. Well, it was no worse than Renée
Fleming singing 'If it ain't got that swing,' and the lady's devoted
admirers were no less ecstatic, whilst I contemplated the nearest exit
route. No one could claim the status of great music for the works of
the last two composers, but there was certainly much pleasure to be
gained from the crystalline clarity of Martineau's playing and his wonderful
inscrutability during the gruesome 'J'ai deux amants.'
Two encores were offered, the second some more rather
inconsequential Debussy, but the first was a different story; Hahn's
'A Cloris' is an exquisite piece, all too rarely included in recitals,
and here it was given the kind of performance that lovers of song dream
about. Martineau played the wonderful Bach - like accompaniment in such
a way as to make you gasp at its aching beauty, and Graham sang it with
the most perfect mastery of diction, line and phrasing, bringing me
back to where I had been at the end of the first half, and where I feel
I should be, that is, right at her feet
Melanie Eskenazi
Return to:
Music on the Web