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Mahler, Wunderhorn Songs: Joan Rodgers (soprano), Roderick Williams (baritone), Roger Vignoles (piano), Kings Place, London 17.12.2008 (JPr)


This small concert formed part of the Roald Dahl Plus series at the recently  opened Kings Place concert venue in London. Dahl apparently once jokingly described himself as an ‘infantile geriatric’ and Peter Ash of the London Schools Symphony Orchestra and Donald Sturrock, the author's biographer, devised a series of concerts, talks and special events inspired by Dahl’s magical stories and poetry although no particular anniversary was being celebrated as far as I could see. Also considered would be the influence of childhood on an artist and there was music by Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn and Mahler in the series as well as newly commissioned orchestral pieces.

A pre-concert talk by Richard Stokes ‘Mahler, Youth and Song’ put the following recital in context though what these Wunderhorn songs were doing in this Roald Dahl Plus series was not entirely clear. Des Knaben Wunderhorn (‘The Youth’s Magic Horn’) is the title given by Achim von Arnim and Clemens Brentano to the collections of German folk poetry they compiled and published between 1805 and 1808. This provided the texts for songs by several composers, including Schubert, Mendelssohn, Brahms, and Mahler of course, Richard Strauss, Zemlinsky, Webern and Charles Ives.

The Wunderhorn poems, deal with subjects of universal appeal to these composers such as love and lost love, childhood whimsy and military life, war and death. Some are comedic, some heroic, some tragic and some ironic. Mahler, however, identified himself with Des Knaben Wunderhorn more than any other composer and spoke of these poems as being ‘essentially different from all kinds of “literary” poetry, being more nature and life - that is, the sources of all poetry - than art’. Admittedly Mahler was enthralled by the ‘mystery of nature’ and had other childhood memories such as the local military barracks and its martial music and the revelries at his father’s inn to drawn on.

Mahler’s settings of these songs owes much to the influence of Carl Loewe (1796-1869), whose hundreds of ballads he knew well. Mahler’s blend of folkloristic subjects and art song is very similar to Loewe's - although  strangely he never set the Wunderhorn texts to music and limited himself instead to verses by recognized poets such as Friedrich Rückert, who also inspired other songs by Mahler.

Mahler composed nine Wunderhorn songs for voice with piano accompaniment between 1887 and 1890, and published these as Lieder und Gesänge aus der Jugendzeit (‘Songs and Airs from Days of Youth’) in 1892; subsequently, between 1892 and 1901, he composed 15 for voice and orchestra to other texts, eventually publishing these as Songs from Des Knaben Wunderhorn in 1899. Three of them became movements of his symphonies and the other twelve are a not actually a cycle but a collection and are usually divided - when all are performed as at this comprehensive recital -  between a baritone and a soprano (or alto), with some set as duets. Joan Rodgers and Roderick Williams performed all of these twelve plus ‘Urlicht’ and five songs from Lieder und Gesänge including as their well-deserved encore ‘Um schlimme Kinder artig zu machen’ (To Teach Naughty Children to be Good).

Ms Rodgers especially never really got going in the first half of the programme and was disappointingly reliant on the score;  she lacked emotion in crucial phrases such as her response to the ghostly sentinel at the end of ‘Der Schildwache Nachtlied’ or as the hungry child in ‘Das irdische Leben’ in which she needed to sing with more anxiety. Mr Williams on the other hand had an easy and relaxed platform manner though his soft-grained voice was initially rather on the bland side for these songs and there seemed to be some swallowed consonants. However, m in the duet ‘Verlorne Müh’ he was suitably dismissive of the ‘Foolish girl’ throwing herself at him. Yet in ‘Revelge’ as he describes the spectre of the drummer boy doing his job and trying to rally the dead soldiers,  he was too upbeat throughout the song and, for me, needed darker more ironic tones when referring to how his comrades  ‘...liegen wie gemäht’ (Lie like mown grass on the ground). Here he could have been helped more by his vastly experienced accompanist, Roger Vignoles, whose percussive sounds of marching was apt. Somehow though, the song lacked atmosphere overall, particularly the interlude when the ghostly regiment passes through the town.

Matters improved after the interval as though some nerves had been conquered or there had been a half-time pep talk. Ms Rodgers seemed to take too many breaths to give the ‘Urlicht’ the otherworldly rapt spirituality it needed but  was at her best in ‘Rheinlegendchen’ - a very perky account even if she needed to make more of a phrase like ‘Wern’s Ringlein sollt sein’ (Whose ring it might be) to differentiate between the young boy, his sweetheart and the King. Mr Williams was suited best by ‘Ich ging mit Lust durch einen grünen Wald’ which had nice phrasing. He suitably employed some refined head tone in this song including at ‘nimm dich in Acht’ (take care) where the boy who has failed to rouse his beloved from her sleep by his knocking at her door,  has wandered on and the nightingale sings its warning to the sleeping girl as to where he might be going. Roger Vignoles’s accompaniment was very restrained here and at its best.

A highlight of the whole recital was their last official item,  the duet ‘Trost in Unglück’; the singing of Joan Rodgers as the dismissive flighty girl and Roderick Williams as the haughty Hussar along with more galloping in the piano from Roger Vignoles was a splendid climax to an evening. The recital was interesting from the point of view of hearing so many of these songs together but was not memorable because of the uneven performances given during the evening.

Jim Pritchard


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