SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

SEEN AND HEARD UK CONCERT REVIEW
 

Hugo Wolf -  Songs from the Spanisches Liederbuch: Angelika Kirschlager (mezzo) Ian Bostridge (tenor) and Julius Drake (piano) Wigmore Hall, London 13.9.2010 (GD)

 

What a relief to be out of the acoustical catastrophe that is the Royal Albert Hall and back into the warm, nurturing embrace of the Wigmore. I've missed the old place – sure the Proms has the same camaraderie and the same enthusiastic audiences (one or two of whom were here this evening in the shorts and T-shirts that they recently wore in the arena), but there is a  whole ethos of sheer perfectionism at the Wigmore that the BBC struggles to match, even with the stellar guest orchestras of the Proms' final weeks.

This year marks the 110^th anniversary of the hall, an arbitrary milestone perhaps, but still one they are keen to emphasise. And this concert of Wolf lieder by two of the biggest names in the business was one of the gala opening events for the celebratory season. Needless to say, the results were pure Wigmore gold. Great as the acoustic is, performers really need to know it to work well here. The sound is bright and every detail is communicated impeccably, but it doesn't handle really loud sounds as well as many other halls of its size, certainly not as well as its recent competition at Kings Place. Fortunately, all three of this evenings musicians are seasoned Wigmoreites, and while they all came close to the limits of the acoustics’s comfort zone in terms of fortissimo (Bostridge in particular), all gave performances that were ideally suited to the hall.

The Wigmore Steinway was well played by Julius Drake, an unassuming accompanist, but with plenty of colour and energy. He is not really called upon to produce any fireworks in the Spanisches Liederbuch, but he really made the most of his few moments to shine.

Ian Bostridge has one of the great voices of our times, but I'm not sure that it is ideally suited to this repertoire. The clarity of his tone and of his diction are second to none, but his voice lacks weight. Wolf's music is often very simple, and relies on the singer's tone colour, and that was often lacking here. For all that though, he is a wonderful performer. The variety of moods between his songs was impressive and, as I say, the sheer clarity of his diction is both intimate and endearing. It took him a few minutes in the first half to get up to speed, and before then there were one or two tuning issues, but after that his performance was note perfect.

It is probably unpatriotic of me to say this, but despite the impressive performance from Bostridge, the evening really belonged to Angelika  Kirschlager. Her performance was breathtaking. It had passion, pathos, a wonderful variety of tone colours, and a real affinity with the spirit of the texts. There is nothing forced about her singing, and her basic approach is to sing with very little vibrato and to phrase in a very straightforward, natural way. But she can also do the flouncey prima donna thing when required and, more importantly, stop doing it when it is not required. The sheer passion in her voice is addictive. In fairness, Wolf's songs are a bit of a mixed bag; many of them are miniature masterpieces, but others don't quite carry their weight. But Kirschlager puts equal commitment into every single one of them. There are a few set moods in this cycle: religious veneration, sorrow, and the joy of love – that's about it, give or take, but Kirschlager nails each of them. Damned sexy too, even in the psychedelic curtain she had chosen to drape herself in. I think she may have had a cold, although the only clues were the fact that she occasionally stifled a cough between numbers and she always had a glass of water to hand. But you wouldn't have known from her singing, which was wholly unaffected. What a pro!

Gavin Dixon

Note: As originally published on Tuesday 14th September, this review was found to contain some inaccuracies which have now been removed. We apologise unreservedly for these errors. Ed.

Back to Top                                                 Cumulative Index Page