Opening Night of the 2007/8 Season at the Wigmore Hall - Wagner, Wolf, Britten, Carter: Christine Brewer (soprano) Roger Vignoles (piano). 8.9.2007 (ME)

 

Over at the Royal Albert Hall, the Proms season was closing with the usual noisy bash, the only twinge of regret at not being there the fact that one was missing ten minutes or so of Anna Netrebko – but no matter, one could catch her later on TV, and it was abundantly clear from the moment that Christine Brewer opened her mouth that, yet again, the Wigmore Hall was the place to be. I’ve spent a lot of time recently reviewing discs of dubious performances of Handel and other composers, many by singers so thin in tone and dull in quality that they really ought never to have approached a microphone, so to come from that whinnying and whickering to Ms Brewer was like going from watery raspberry diet yoghurt to New York double vanilla cheesecake – satisfying, smooth and sweet to the taste. The Wigmore loves her, of course, and this evening’s cognoscenti responded with ecstasy to singing of crystalline clarity and dramatic power, and playing which has no equal for sensitivity and eloquence.

This is a partnership born to perform the Wesendonck Lieder – this soprano and pianist are long-established collaborators, and it showed in every line, from the sheer confident flow of ‘In der Kindheit frühen Tagen’ to the melancholy reverberation of ‘Und dann sinken in die Gruft.’ When Christine Brewer sings this music and Vignoles plays, you feel that there is no other way with it: all the drama wanted is there, especially in lines like ‘Wie ein stolzes Siegesheld!’ and as for the requisite tenderness, such is the technical security of this huge voice that it can be scaled down to a whisper without the loss of line or emphasis. The same ideal blend of power and sweetness was found in the Mignon Lieder where pianist and singer achieved ecstatic heights in lines such as ‘Macht mich auf ewig wieder jung!’ and throughout the final song, ‘Kennst du das Land,’ where the intensity never let up for a second, yet there was no sense of over-heating.

English language song took over in the second half, with especially fine performances of Britten’s ‘Tell me the Truth about Love’ and ‘Funeral Blues,’ although I have to confess to being left cold by John Carter’s Cantata – this was not the performers’ fault, since they gave all they had to the work, but my reaction to such pieces as ‘Peter go ring-a dem bells’ is much the same as that of many people to a Handel aria – ‘too many repeats.’ The audience loved it all, however, and we were rewarded with three especially fine encores – Hall Johnson’s ‘A City called Heaven’ a positively barnstorming performance of Strauss’ ‘Ich Liebe dich’ and Ms Brewer’s favourite song, ‘A Town called Mira’ from Carnival, which almost makes me want to go to a musical whenever I hear her sing it – almost, but not quite. A great recital, a perfect Wigmore evening, and it was recorded for the ‘Wigmore Hall Live’ series – get your order in now.

 

Melanie Eskenazi   

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