Robert SCHUMANN (1810-1856)
Liederkreis op.24 [21:16]
Dichterliebe op.48 [29:49]
Franz Paul LACHNER (1803-1890)
Five songs from Sängerfahrt op.33 [18:30]
Mark Padmore (tenor), Kristian Bezuidenhout (fortepiano)
rec. June 2010, Air Studios, Lyndhurst Hall, London, England
HARMONIA MUNDI HMU907521 [68:53]
Mark Padmore (b.1961) started his musical activities as a clarinetist and
singer. During the early 1980s he sang with The Sixteen and the Hilliard Ensemble.
With the Hilliards he can be heard on ‘Perotinus’, an ECM album
that has meanwhile achieved legendary status. In the 1990s he worked as a
soloist with William Christie, Philippe Herreweghe and John Eliot Gardiner,
and was much sought after as the Evangelist in the Passions of Johann Sebastian
Bach. In 2002 he appeared for the first time in a lieder recital, singing
Schubert’s ‘Die Schöne Müllerin’. His accompanist,
Roger Vignoles, encouraged him to concentrate on the lied repertoire, and
as a result, Padmore now spends a large amount of his time on the recital
podium. He performs with seasoned accompanists: Julius Drake, Graham Johnson
and Malcolm Martineau, and has also forged performing relationships with famous
pianists: Imogen Cooper, Till Fellner and Paul Lewis. The latter accompanied
him in very successful recordings of Schubert’s great song-cycles, ‘Die
Winterreise’ and ‘Die Schöne Müllerin’.
For his most recent recital tour Padmore opted for a collaboration with fortepianist
Kristian Bezuidenhout, an artist who was invited by Harmonia Mundi to record
Mozart’s complete solo piano music. Padmore dedicated his tour to the
poet Heinrich Heine, who was a fount of inspiration for Franz Schubert. Robert
Schumann visited Vienna in 1838, ten years after Schubert’s death, and
became acquainted with the older composer’s Ninth Symphony and the song
cycles ‘Winterreise’, ‘Müllerin’ and ‘Schwanengesang’.
Despite the fact that Schumann initially looked down on the Lied phenomenon,
but in 1840, just married to Clara, in his new role as family man felt obliged
to provide a more substantial income. Considering the popularity of the lied
genre with the middle class in those days, publishing songs was a logical
way to bolster his wages. Schumann’s preference for Heinrich Heine was
no coincidence. Heine’s ‘Das Buch der Lieder’, published
in 1820, enjoyed an immense popularity and inspired nineteenth-century composers
to write no less than 8000 songs. On this CD five of those are placed between
Schumann’s opp. 24 and 48. They were selected from the volume ‘Sängerfahrt’
by Franz Paul Lachner (1803-1890). During the last two years of Schubert’s
life Lachner befriended Schubert, who was six years his senior. Lachner’s
music pays homage to Schubert, and some of his settings employ texts that
were also set by Schubert and Schumann. On this recital they are ‘Im
Mai’, the opening song of ‘Dichterliebe’ (‘Im wunderschönen
Monat Mai’), and ‘Das Fischermädchen’, also known in
a setting by Schubert. They are a resounding testimony to the difference between
talent and genius.
On the recordings of Schubert’s ‘Die Winterreise’ and ‘Die
schöne Müllerin’ pianist Paul Lewis opted for a modern Steinway.
Kristian Bezuidenhout decided upon an 1837 Erard, not exactly a brand that
one would associate with Robert and Clara Schumann. Add that Bezuidenhout
has his very own and very free way with Mozart, as performed on his first
disc for Harmonia Mundi, and a bit of trepidation might well be expected from
the prospective listener. Luckily things work out to the contrary: Bezuidenhout
lets the music speak for itself, and his instrument sparkles and buzzes quite
stylishly. This is exactly the kind of sound on which Padmore’s light
tenor rides easily.
Padmore’s voice fits in the tradition of his countrymen Peter Pears,
Anthony Rolfe Johnson and Philip Langridge - sadly the last two passed away
last year. It carries less weight than Langridge’s, and sounds slightly
less warm than Rolfe Johnson’s. Another difference from his great predecessors
is that his lighter tenor is not (yet) capable of an operatic role like Peter
Grimes. On the British music scene Ian Bostridge, who has an even lighter
sound, is another singer who occupies himself on the same level with this
repertoire. He has also recorded Schubert’s great cycles, and has also
sought the collaboration of famous pianists like Leif Ove Andsnes and Mitsuko
Ushida. Both tenors excel in very clear diction, a phenomenon that appears
more often with vocalists that have to sing outside their native language.
A slight British accent is a small price to pay.
The differences in interpretation between Bostridge and Padmore are enormous.
In a few words: Bostridge ‘interprets’ and in doing so discovers
all kinds of detail that detracts from the essential. In Heine’s woods
he pauses at every tree, thus managing to distract from the music and putting
his own persona between the composer and the public. Padmore lets the notes
speak for themselves, tries to erase himself, and puts the composer center-stage.
Better yet, in his own words, he wants, above all, the poet’s voice
to be heard. Both artists have a substantial following. The content of this
disc was also the program of Padmore and Bezuidenhout’s recital tour.
The concerts they gave in Carnegie and Wigmore Halls met with large audiences
and were very favorably discussed in the press. Both Padmore and Bezuidenhout
possess rich and sympathetic communicative powers; on CD we have only the
sound to consider, but the enjoyment does not suffer. In the song ‘Im
Rhein, im heiligen Strome’, with its baritonal opening register, Padmore
lacks somewhat in strength, but is royally compensated for that in Bezuidenhout’s
sharply etched rhythms - something that seems to stem from his experience
in older music.
‘Dichterliebe’ belongs with ‘Winterreise’ and ‘Müllerin’
in the top five of most beloved song-cycles, and has, in the course of recorded
history, been taped numerous times. Peter Schreier immediately springs to
mind as an unforgettable performer in this repertoire. Every generation has
its own favourites, who might well be intolerable for the next one - something
that becomes apparent upon listening again to the classic performance of Lotte
Lehmann and Bruno Walter. Mark Padmore is a tenor for the twenty-first century
and in Kris Bezuidenhout he has found an ideal partner. The choice of the
instrument plays no mean role in all of this. Together they make a new noise,
which has been captured in ideal acoustic circumstances.
Siebe Riedstra
Rich and sympathetic communicative powers.