Und
Morgen wird die Sonne wieder scheinen…. in
mitten dieser sonnenatmenden Erde….. the
opening words of the perfectly chosen encore
to this stunning performance not only encapsulated
what it had all been about in terms of technical
prowess – those seemingly endless, long- breathed
lines, that faultless control – but also of
emotional completeness: after the sorrow of
Kindertotenlieder, dominated as it
is by storm and suffering, the sun will indeed
shine over the earth and the quiet silence
of happiness will descend. This kind of ‘joined-
up thinking’ is of course typical of Goerne,
and was also demonstrated in the association
of the Beethoven lieder which began the recital,
with the Strauss and Mahler which followed
them.
The
words ‘Lisch aus, mein Licht!’ (Go out, my
light) are not perhaps expected at the beginning
of a recital, but this first line to one of
Beethoven’s least frequently performed works
established the atmosphere of its title, ‘Resignation’
as one which coloured the whole recital: quiet
acceptance of sorrow after having tasted despair.
Goerne’s beautiful, steady tone at the quiet
outset and his startling forte at ‘lustig
aufgebrannt’ were as fine as ever, but it
took a little while for Alexander Schmalcz
to be on his level, the first few songs being
a little tentative as far as the piano was
concerned. ‘Adelaide’ found singer and pianist
in confident form, the most remarkable aspects
again being Goerne’s control of dynamics from
the softest piano to the most confident forte.
‘Maigesang’ is one of those songs which, like
with Mozart’s ‘Sehnsucht nach dem Frühling’
is always useful for disproving the notion
that Lieder are always concerned with misery:
it’s sheer joy from start to finish, as seemingly
artless and trembling with desire as anything
in Schubert, and it was sung and played wonderfully,
with Schmalcz actually appearing to relish
those fiendish flourishes which characterize
the moments between stanzas.
A similar
ardour was shown in ‘Lied aus der Ferne’ with
Schmalcz providing some wonderfully virtuosic
playing in the long vorspiel, and Goerne conveying
a real sense of one almost swept away with
passion with the breathless fervour of the
final invitation ‘Zum temple der Wonne, die
Göttin sei du!’ The challenging second
setting of ‘An die Hoffnung’ brought the first
half of the recital to a magnificent conclusion:
carrying on the theme of hope and acceptance,
this declamatory piece looks forward to much
later works and bears comparison, at least
harmonically, with some of Wolf’s songs. Goerne
is on home ground with this kind of music,
and he gave it all he had: intensity, seriousness
of purpose, grandeur and dramatic tension
were all there, nowhere more so than at the
tremendous conclusion, carrying us forward
to Strauss, with the sun glimpsed ‘um den
Rand des Erdentraumes.’
Three
songs by Richard Strauss formed the prelude
to the main work of the evening: they were
of course all thematically related, mingling
regret with sorrow and acceptance and culminating
in a wondrous performance of ‘Allerseelen’
which avoided any sense of the mawkishness
which the composer regretted as the fate resulting
from the popularity of such songs, but still
conveyed with piercing emotion the bittersweet
nature of love and loss inherent in both words
and music: ‘Komm an mein Herz, dass ich dich
wieder habe’ could not have been sung with
more ardour, or less affectation.
Although
the work is perhaps most frequently heard
with full orchestra, ‘Kindertotenlieder’ was
of course originally written for solo voice
with piano, and every performance of Mahler’s
setting of Rückert’s poems written directly
after the death from scarlet fever of two
of his small children must come to terms not
only with the almost unbearable emotion of
the piece but also with the performances of
those great singers of the past with whom
the work has been associated: I mean of course
Ferrier and Fischer – Dieskau. Goerne is as
naturally gifted as both singers, and he also
possesses the steady dignity of Rehkemper
and the seamless legato of Baker: this was
however a performance notable for its individuality,
its sense that the great ones of the past
have been heard, understood and loved and
yet set aside to accommodate an interpretation
which gives as much attention to individual
words and which sets the voice as forward
as Fischer-Dieskau’s, yet never overstates:
which is as emotionally searing as Ferrier’s
yet somehow manages to achieve a certain distance:
and which has the nobility of Rehkemper’s
yet still absorbs you and involves you as
if you are hearing the music for the first
time.
‘It’s
the singing, of course,
isn’t it…’ as someone said afterwards – and
indeed it is. ‘Nun will die Sonn’ so hell
aufgehn’ was sung with so beautifully coloured
a tone that it would have been inappropriate
had it not been for the edge of sorrow in
the voice and the depth of meaning given to
‘Unglück’ – the closing line, ‘Heil sei
dem Freudenlicht der Welt!’ was given in one
arching line of melody – superb. Michael Kennedy
once wrote, finely, of Fischer-Dieskau’s performance
of ‘Nun seh ich wohl’ that ‘…the repeated
phrase ‘O Augen’ is sung with a compassionate
intensity that tells us all we dare know about
this kind of remorse’ and I would pay Goerne
the same compliment, ‘all we dare know’ being
wonderfully apposite for his intensity of
expression here. He was superbly accompanied
by Schmalcz who never overwhelmed the voice,
yet he still managed to suggest an almost
orchestral depth in the tone.
The
final song, ‘In diesem Wetter’ contains all
that the whole work, and indeed Rückert’s
poems in general, have come to mean – the
depiction of raw emotion, feeling conveyed
with acute sensitivity and a deep understanding
of the connections between the natural world
and the states of mind of the sentient beings
who live in it. Goerne and Schmalcz conveyed
every nuance of both words and music: the
anger directed at the poet himself in the
first lines, the sardonic bitterness at ‘Das
sind nun eitle Gedanken,’ the sense of endlessly
pouring rain in the background and most of
all the heartbreaking turn towards acceptance
of a sort at the end, where the storm still
rages outside as it once did in the poet’s
heart yet within his mind he ‘knows’ that
his precious children are safe now, resting
‘als wie in der Mutter Haus,’ which must surely
be one of the most lump-in-the-throat moments
in music – Goerne did not fail to induce exactly
that, whilst still leaving us with a sense
of renewal, a sense poignantly extended in
that wonderful encore, where ‘Wird us, die
Glücklichen, sie Wieder einen…’ took
on a whole new dimension.
Melanie Eskenazi
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