SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

Roderick Williams – an Evening of Lieder in the heart of England: Roderick Williams (baritone), Susie Allan (piano), Forum Theatre, Malvern, 07.05.2009 (SL)

If there’s a more beautiful part of England in May than around the Malvern Hills, then I don’t know it.  So when Nature and Art combine, as they did last night at the Malvern Concert Club’s final offering for their 2008/09 season featuring baritone Roderick Williams accompanied  by Susie Allan, then we should feel lucky indeed.  The Club was founded by Sir Edward Elgar and still strives today to present the highest standards of performers, both home-grown and from abroad, to its surprisingly large catchment area of music lovers, which stretches from south of Birmingham across to Hereford and down to Cheltenham and Gloucester. 

Roderick Williams is one of those singers who creeps up on you, so to speak.  Quietly but persuasively, year on year, from recital to concert to opera, from smaller stages such as Malvern, via the likes of Opera North, Scottish Opera, and more recently garnering rave reviews at ENO, the Royal Opera and beyond, his sheer musicianship and technical assurance have brought him to the brink of international stardom. Andrew Porter of “Opera” referred to him recently as simply “Britain’s best baritone” – praise indeed considering some of the opposition – and even if one were to judge only on his vocal prowess in the Lieder he sang in Malvern it would be hard to argue.  Yet, even more convincing, is his sheer breadth of repertoire and consistency at the highest level of vocalism.  Renowned for his performances and recordings of the early 20th century English repertoire – Ireland, Gurney, Elgar, Vaughan Williams – Williams is equally at home with Purcell or Birtwistle, and revels in his own arrangements and compositions to boot.   

At this concert in Malvern, we heard his German lieder (Mozart, Schumann, Brahms, Beethoven and Wolf) and it was no surprise to realise that he brought the same immaculate diction and clarity of expression to these as he does to his English songs.  Williams is not one for moving about much; he stands loose–limbed and relaxed, hands quietly by his side, and lets the music and words express all feeling and drama.  The Forum Theatre in Malvern is a fair size – 630 seats – and his rich, easy baritone hardly moved out of second gear all night, so he was always able to sing totally within his comfort zone.    

The Mozart songs, An Chloe, Das Veilchen and Ein deutsches Kriegslied, were offered with a delicate touch, with accompanist Susie Allan immediately showing her ability to match Williams’ subtle colouring. These were followed by the great Schumann Liederkreis, Opus 39, song cycle which showed both performers to perfection with detailed word–painting, superb line and subtle drama, the poetry brought to shimmering life. This was perhaps best illustrated by Williams’ softly-floated top notes in a luminous Mondnacht”, and Allan’s equally delicately crafted postludes throughout the cycle. 

After the interval it was back to another “cycle”, but the very different sound world of Brahms’s Vier Ernste Gesange Opus 121.  Here the darker colours and wider tessitura enabled Roderick Williams to extend his voice to mine a deeper vein of expression, culminating in a riveting O Tod, wie bitter bist du where power was tempered with finesse.  Again, the diction was superb, lines were sculpted, not one iota of meaning lost or smudged. Both performers achieved a level of tonal beauty not easily forgotten. 

After the Brahms, the four Beethoven songs had something of a sorbet effect and here Williams allowed himself a little whimsy – not to mention a little acting in the skittish “flea song” Es war einmal ein Konig. The evening was rounded off by three of Wolf’s best–known songs:  Der neue Amadis, Verschwiegene Liebe and Der Rattenfanger which again emphasised the singer’s ability to change mood and colour at will – the delicate transparency of “Silent Love” being particularly impressive.    
Warm applause for both performers elicited as encore a charming arrangement – by one Roderick Williams – of Burns’ “My love is like a red, red rose” sung with a silky tone and generous warmth that somehow characterised this May evening in Malvern. 

Sue Loder

reviewer


^{Back to Top                                                    Cumulative Index Page}