Seen and Heard Recital
Review
Schubert Die schöne Müllerin
Mark Padmore (tenor); Julius Drake (piano), Wigmore Hall, Monday,
January 31st, 2005 (CC)
It fell to tenor Mark Padmore to present the Miller’s daughter
as part of the Wigmore’s ‘The Schubert Cycles’
series (as a BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Recital). Had he been alive,
Schubert would have been 208 on this very day.
Padmore was an interesting choice as he spends much time with
earlier music, having sung the Evangelist in Bach’s St John’s
Passion for ENO and Jephtha (Handel) for WNO. His sound speaks
of his leanings. Direct, with sparing use of vibrato, it was clear
from the beginning that this was Schubert viewed from the other
end; rather than looking back, as interpreters are wont to do,
through the later developments of Romanticism, Padmore was happy
to see this very much as ‘early’ music. The result?
Refreshing, certainly, and undeniably moving in places, although
whether this particular Schubertian protagonist’s quest
for his Müllerin was as touching as can be the case was open
to question.
Certainly the approach was clearly in evidence from the very beginning,
‘Das Wandern.’ Padmore’s lightish voice made
easy work of rapid interval leaps that can in other hands sound
clumsy. Julius Drake’s accompaniment was ever tasteful and
very responsive to his singer’s needs. Padmore is not possessed
of the world’s largest voice, and so the heavy bass left-hand
for the stanza beginning, ‘Die Steine selbst so schwer sie
sind’ (‘The mill-stones themselves so heavy’)
was only highlighted when Padmore was silent, being instantly
tamed on his entrance.
Drake is such an excellent accompanist that it is easy to sit
back and enjoy his playing almost to the detriment of the singer
(Imogen Cooper shares this ability to fascinate with her excellence
when she accompanies). So, be it in the supremely even accompaniment
to, ‘Wohin?,’ the urgent heaviness of ‘Am Feierabend’
or the light-as-air ‘Mit dem grünen Lautenbande’
or the adrenalin-stimulating, ‘Eifersucht und Stolz’
(‘Jealousy and Pride’), there was an enormous amount
to admire.
Padmore’s trump card was to appear every inch the youth,
carried away by the emotions of young love. Small surprise, then,
that his account of ‘Mein!’ conveyed all of that youthful
impetuosity (and yet retained definition in those difficult slurs),
all this against Drake’s huge sound.
Lieder were intelligently segue-ed together to form groups. It
was fitting that the two most memorable Lieder were the final
two. The penultimate ‘Der Müller und der Bach’
was notable for the radiant rendering (from both musicians) of
the Brook’s verses. The final ‘Des Baches Wiegenlied’
rocked hypnotically (and how beautiful was the line ‘In
dem blauen kristallenen Kämmerlein’).
A valuable, alternative take on Müllerin.
Colin Clarke
Further Listening:
Wolfgang Holzmair, Imogen Cooper, Philips 456 851-2
Olaf Bär, Geoffrey Parsons, EMI Double Forte 5 74855-2
(c/w Winterreise)
