Seen and Heard International Recital Review

 

"Wienerlieder" – Komponisten von fern bis modern: Jörg Espenkott (baritone), Peter Goldner (piano) Alte Schmiede, Vienna, 14.4.2007 (GF)

 

Österreichische Gesellschaft für Zeitgenössische Musik (ÖGZM) (The Austrian Society for Contemporary Music) was founded in February 1949 by a group of 104 persons, including the composers Theodor Berger and Joseph Marx, important figures in Austrian music life during the greater part of the 20^th century. The first concert was held on 19 March 1949 in the Brahms-Saal in Musikverein and since then they have arranged more than 600 concerts, presenting music by more than 360 contemporary Austrian composers. The song recital I was lucky to attend was held in Alte Schmiede (The Old Smithy), a small venue in Schönlaterngasse in Central Vienna, situated little more than a stone’s throw from Stephansdom. Seating around 40 listeners, surrounding the performers on three sides, this guarantees intimacy to a degree that comes close to the Schubertiades two centuries ago, which took place not far from this place. This means that the music, the texts, the inflexions, the expressions come over in a way that one rarely encounters in today’s regular concert halls. It also means that the musicians are mercilessly exposed, the first row of seats barely two meters from the singer. In this case it wasn’t a problem since both baritone Jörg Espenkott and pianist Peter Goldner were highly communicative artists who created a hearty atmosphere, inviting those present to an entertaining and serious afternoon. Spring had, at least temporarily, turned into Summer this Saturday and the temperature increased gradually, but not more than the musical temperature, which tended to neutralise the external heat and leaving the recital one felt refreshed and cool rather than flaming red and exhausted. A special treat this afternoon was the presence of three present-day Vienna composers, whose songs constituted the backbone of the concert.

They opened however with three songs from a couple of generations back, songs in a style that we readily associate with Vienna and singers like Erich Kunz. Melodic and with a typical Viennese lilt they may not be classified as art songs but they do represent a folksiness and charm that goes directly to the heart of the listener. Composer names like Karl Hodina and Roman Domanig-Roll may mean little or nothing to non-Austrians but they knew their craft and Hodina’s Herrgott aus Sta’ is  well-known among lovers of this genre.

There followed three songs by Herbert Feldhofer, born 1938 and not a professional composer, but parallel with his work as compositor he got musical training at the Konservatorium Wien and the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst and has written chamber music, orchestral works and numerous Wiener Lieder. In this latter field he stays firmly within the established frames but with a personal touch. There is warmth but also humour in his songs – he writes his own lyrics – which was even more obvious in the three songs in his second section. There was even some Swiftian pessimism in the song about the dog which became so influenced by his master that he finally was degraded - to a human being!

The music of Akos Banlaky, born 1966 and with a long list of works to his credit, including three operas, is more acrimonious but just as communicative and also well conceived for the human voice. The five songs from his Second Sonnet-book – to his own texts – were full of variety and spanned many moods, from high-strung drama to heartfelt melancholy. In fact this was emotionally the most engrossing part of the concert, both through the nakedness of the vocal lines and the piano part which lived its own life but still in symbiosis with the texts and the melodies, which were not catchy in the traditional sense of the word but … inevitable. I would very much like to hear the full cycle, which comprises 28 sonnets, and also the first book with 28 settings of Petrarch.

The third composer present was Ferdinand Weiss, who has had a very long and diversified career. Born in 1933 he studied composition, conducting (with Hans Swarowsky) and flute in the 1950s, whereupon he worked as orchestral musician, Kapellmeister and composer with an impressive list of works. At this concert we heard four songs to poems by Erich Kästner – as far as I have been able to find out composed in 1985 as part of his opus 180. Stylistically Weiss writes in a neo-classical style, and the songs are often ironical, even burlesque, sometimes reminding me of Hanns Eisler and his settings of Brecht and Kurt Tucholsky.

As a kind of encore Espenkott and Goldner gave us another three traditional Vienna songs, first by Robert Stolz – presumably the only one of the composers on the afternoon’s programme who is a firmly established name in the musical world outside Austria – and then one each by father and son Gerhard and Ernst Track. In the former’s Ich sitze gern am Rhein Peter Goldner also showed his prowess as a singer, both on his own and in duet with Jörg Espenkott.

Jörg Espenkott, whose main interest lies in contemporary music but who also engages himself in groups performing old music and even sings light music in the Comedian Harmonists, was an ideal interpreter of this music. His well-schooled baritone is light but yet firm, can express soft nuances beautifully but also has dramatic power and he is a natural communicator, as is Peter Goldner. In close-up confrontation in a small venue this is even more important than in a larger hall. The programme was sensitively put together and I dearly hope someone will be bold enough to make a recording of it. This programme will, unabridged, nicely fill a CD.

 

Göran Forsling