SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

Wolf , Mörike Songs: Imogen Cooper (piano), Wolfgang Holzmair (baritone), Wigmore Hall, London, 19. 2.2008 (AO)

Wolfgang Holzmair

Richard Stokes’s programme notes really should be collected in book form, for they are unsurpassed guides to the poetry that makes Lieder. Many of his translations have been published, but his work on the relationship between poetry and music is truly exceptional. He combines erudition with an exceptionally sensitive feel for the relationship between words and music. Reading his work is like following a masterclass in song interpretation at the highest level. He doesn’t sing or teach voice, but no-one, in my experience, can inspire such insight into how poetry works with music.

That said, programme notes are written as basic commentary.  Reviews, instead, are about specific performances, and how specific performers achieve their interpretation of what they do. So I’m not going to regurgitate Stokes’s notes undigested, excellent as they are. They are his ideas, after all, and I’m not passing them off as my own.  His work is so good it really needs to be circulated permanently, in book form, so others can learn from them and develop their own insights.

Even before the concert started, I knew we were in for a delightful evening when I overheard, from outside the hall, Imogen Cooper rehearsing Feuerreiter. Holzmair wasn’t singing. She was playing for herself, abandoning herself to the sheer thrill of those crazy chords that describe the horseman who rises out of the flames. “Aha!” I thought, for she’d captured the sense of manic menace that makes this song so effective. The peasants are rushing to save the burning mill, but then the horseman appears, cackling with evil glee. Who is he? A malicious spirit or someone cursed ? Mörike’s poem mixes fear and fascination and Wolf’s flamboyant cadenzas indicate that he, too, understood the elemental nature of the mystery.  Later, in the concert proper, Holzmair whispered the terrible word “Feuerreiter !” bringing a sudden chill, which sounds even more unnerving after those agitated. refrains.

The partnership between Cooper and Holzmair is so close, it’s almost symbiotic.  That gives their performances an unusually well balanced quality.  We’re so used to hearing singers dominate, even when pianists are superbly effective, that Holzmair’s style needs to be appreciated for what it is. He’s self-effacing and doesn’t over-project, so that his voice seems to blend with Cooper’s. It’s quite a different dynamic, but yields good results.  It’s a style that pays tribute to the pianist, so it’s just as well Cooper is such a consummate artist.  She’s a Lieder natural, fluent as a native speaker and sensitive to the interplay between text and piano part.

This approach is specially good in songs like Bei einer Trauung where the slow tread of the piano part evokes the sense of dread the bridal couple in this song feel as they approach the altar. It’s bridal march as funeral march in this case.  Holzmair’s understated style forces us to listen more carefully and imagine the scene for ourselves.  Cooper’s pace is measured but very firm. This couple face interminable years of misery they can’t escape. Similarly, Schlafendes Jesuskind worked well, Cooper capturing the quiet “heartbeat” rhythm, Holzmair the sense of rapture. Loud, forthright singing would wake the sleeping infant !  Instead, we enter into the contemplative mood.  Again, the reverential Gebet suited Holzmair, who sang it innig, with sincere grace.  This poem is a paradox, though, for the prayer begs God not to send only “blessed moderation”, no more, no less.  Both Mörike and Wolf were probably manic-depressive, so there’s good reason to emphasise the hidden irony.  On the other hand, the poem and song have been loved by thousands who never knew the hidden background, so Holzmair’s approach stems from long tradition.

Mörike’s world, though, is as full of mischief and mayhem as it is of mystery.  I would have liked more animation in Der Tambour, where the naïve drummer boy dreams of food while the soldiers are sleeping.  Nor did he ignite in the glorious Er ists, where effervescent agility makes the delicately written, simple song burst into exuberant life. He was livelier, though, with the humour in Zur Warnung. Again, this was an opportunity for Cooper to indulge in the exaggerated pathos which Wolf writes to illustrate the mock-serious doggerel in the text.  Even better was the unannounced encore, Selbtsgeständnis.  This time, Holzmair’s gift for parody surfaced more freely as he negotiated the choppy, upbeat lines about the spoilt brat who takes advantage of being an only child. Altogether an enjoyable evening, minus the Sturm und Drang so often associated with Lieder but not really appropriate in this choice of material.

Anne Ozorio

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