This is my third encounter with Florian Boesch singing Schubert.
Back in 2008 I
reviewed a recital at the Cheltenham Festival in which he
gave a most impressive account of
Schwanengesang. As an aside, I see
that the group of five other
Lieder that he sang on that occasion are
included on a new Schubert disc that Boesch has recorded for Hyperion
(CDA68010). More recently he made a fine recording of
Winterreise for
Onyx (
review). Now he and Malcolm Martineau have
returned to the same London church to record Schubert’s earlier
Müller cycle.
It’s not by accident that their recordings of the two
Müller cycles have appeared in this order. In a very interesting set of
comments in the booklet Florian Boesch reveals that he found it difficult
fully to come to terms with the ending of
Die schöne
Müllerin and the last two songs in particular; he was
unwilling to perform the cycle in public until he was satisfied that he
understood the ending. It was through performing
Winterreise that he
reached that understanding. In essence - and I’m paraphrasing his
whole argument ruthlessly - Boesch believes that though the cycle depicts
the mental turmoil of the infatuated young miller it is likely that there
has not, in fact, been any contact between him and the miller’s
daughter: it’s all in the mind. Crucially, he has come to the view
that the young man does not die at the end of the cycle but that the
reference at the end of Müller’s last poem to a full moon rising
indicates a positive conclusion. Noting that the last song is a lullaby, not
a song of farewell, Boesch concludes that at the end of ‘the inner
dialogue of the miller with his own voice of reason. I am convinced that the
miller emerges from this process healed and ready for his next amorous
adventure.’ It’s an unconventional view of the cycle but clearly
a view that Boesch has reached only after very careful thought. I can
imagine that some may disagree with his stance but, even so, and even though
his view inevitably colours his interpretation of the whole cycle, one can
still sit back and enjoy an outstanding performance of
Die schöne
Müllerin
That this is, indeed, an outstanding performance became clear to me
during the first two or three songs. Boesch’s singing
per se
and his intelligent, perceptive response to the texts gives immense
pleasure. One thing that inclined me very much in his favour is the
lightness of his voice throughout almost all the performance. Though I
don’t by any means dismiss performances of these songs by lower-voiced
singers my instinctive preference is to hear the lighter timbre of a tenor
singing in the original high keys. Boesch, with his light vocal touch,
sounds youthful in ‘Das Wandern’, his cause helped by the quite
brisk pace that he and Malcolm Martineau adopt. Boesch’s delivery
sounds so easy, as it does in ‘Wohin?’ He uses a slightly bigger
voice for ‘Halt!’ but he still keeps the essential vocal
lightness.
In ‘Dankgesang an den Bach’ I love the beguiling
phrasing. Boesch and Martineau make the song sound so easy: it’s not.
With ‘Am Feierabend’ we find the performers willing to make
little unmarked modifications of tempo - at least they’re not marked
in my copy - to put over the words more effectively. Unmarked these tempo
modifications may be, but they are intelligent and work very well.
A little later in the cycle the hunter appears in ‘Der
Jäger’. Many singers deliver this song in a fast and furious
style - and that’s a perfectly reasonable and acceptable approach.
Boesch, however, does something slightly different; he inserts tiny but
perceptible breaks into the vocal line. If that sounds all wrong, it
isn’t. It’s very effective and through this device he and
Martineau build momentum in a different and exciting fashion. The tension
builds cumulatively and very effectively. In ‘Die liebe Farbe’
Boesch deploys a marvellously controlled
mezza voce in the first and
third stanzas, opening up his voice just a bit for the middle stanza; his
performance of this song is hypnotically expressive. A veiled, hushed
mezza voce is also used to deliver ‘Trockne Blumen’.
So we come to the last two songs, the ones which, in the past, had
caused Boesch such interpretative trouble. In ‘Der Müller und der
Bach’ Boesch adopts a withdrawn voice, at a slow tempo, for the boy
but when the voice of the brook is heard the tempo is slightly quicker and
he employs a fuller voice. When the boy speaks again, in the last four lines
of the poem, Boesch sounds less inward and sorrowful than he did at the
start of the song, suggesting acceptance on the boy’s part: he’s
ready to move on. So ‘Der Baches Wiegenlied’ is smooth and
consoling. Boesch and Martineau, as they’ve done so often in the
cycle, use variety of colour, small tempo modifications and rubato to
introduce variety into this strophic setting.
I found this to be an exceptional and sensitive account of
Die
schöne Müllerin. I like Boesch’s approach to the cycle,
not least the way in which, through his light, easy voice, he suggests
youthfulness and engages our sympathies for the young man. I’m
conscious that I’ve focused on Boesch perhaps to the detriment of
Martineau. If so, I apologise for that’s very unfair. His playing is a
consistent source of delight and his imaginative touches and subtle nuances
illuminate the music - and the words - time and again without the slightest
suspicion of point-making. Theirs is a true and most effective partnership
and I hope they will now go on to record
Schwanengesang.
I have several very fine recordings of
Die schöne
Müllerin in my collection, some sung by tenors and some by
baritones. This thoughtful and expertly performed version, presented in
excellent sound, is one that I now rank among the finest that I’ve
heard.
John Quinn
Previous review:
Ralph Moore
Masterwork Index:
Die schöne
Müllerin
