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Recital
London, Wigmore Hall, 6 September 2002
Angelika Kirchschlager, mezzo soprano
Simon Keenlyside, baritone
Julius Drake, piano
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Franz Schubert:
Lambertine AK
Der liebliche Stern (The lovely star) AK
Die Einsiedelei (The hermitage) SK
Der Wanderer an den Mond (The wanderer to the moon) SK
Robert Schumann:
Er und sie (He and she) AK, SK
Schön ist das Fest des Lenzes (The feast of springtime is nice) AK, SK
In der Nacht (At night) AK, SK
Wiegenlied am Lager eines kranken Kindes (Lullaby at the cradle of a sick child) AK, SK
Peter Cornelius:
Der beste Liebesbrief (The best loveletter) AK, SK
Hugo Wolf:
Der Knabe und das Immlein (The boy and the honey-bee) SK
Ein Stündlein wohl vor Tag (An hour before daybreak) AK
In der Frühe (Early in the morning) SK
Auf einer Wanderung (On a walking-tour) SK
An die Geliebte (To the beloved one) SK
Lebe wohl (Good bye) AK
Lied eines Verliebten (Song of an enamoured man) AK
Der Jäger (The hunter) SK
Bei einer Trauung (At a wedding) SK
Begegnung (Meeting) AK
Robert Schumann:
Ballade des Harfners (Ballad of the harper) SK
Lied der Mignon II – Heiß mich nicht reden (Mignon’s song – Don’t ask me to speak) AK
Lied der Mignon III – So lasst mich scheinen (Mignon’s song – Let me appear like this) AK
Mignon’s Gesang (Mignon’s song – Do you know the land) AK
Franz Schubert:
Mignon und der Harfner (Mignon and the harper) AK, SK
Ganymed SK
Suleika II AK
Johannes Brahms:
Ständchen (Serenade) SK
Vor dem Fenster (In front of the window) AK, SK
Dein blaues Auge hält so still (Your blue eyes are so calm) AK
Auf dem Kirchhofe (In the churchyard) SK
Peter Cornelius:
Ich und Du (Me and you) AK, SK
Johannes Brahms:
Es rauschet das Wasser (The water is rustling) AK, SK
Der Jäger und sein Liebchen (The hunter and his sweetheart) AK, SK
Encores:
Franz Schubert:
Florio AK
Franz Schubert:
L’incanto degli occhi (The magic of the eyes) SK
What the critics say
..
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Tim Ashley for The Guardian, 12th September 2002
http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/critic/review/0,,791026,00.html
Rating 5 stars
"Keenlyside's singing is all bridled passion, frequently suggesting startling emotional depths beneath a controlled exterior." "Gorgeous, spine-tingling stuff - any chance they might record some of it?"
Adrian Jack for the Independent, 16th September 2002
http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/music/reviews/article177122.ece
Music on the Web (Melanie Eskenazi)
http://www.musicweb-international.com/SandH/2002/Aug02/Wigmore_opener.htm
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„The first half of the programme gave only a hint of how lovely his tone, and how fine his interpretative skills, can be, with Wolf’s ‘Auf einer Wanderung’ and ‘An die Geliebte’ his best performances. Keenlyside clearly loves these songs with a passion, and he gave them everything he had, the effortful nature of the singing at ‘O Muse, du hast mein Herz berührt…somehow adding to the poignancy of the sound, and as for the latter song, the wonderful final lines were breathed with as much love as any singer could possibly muster.“
Hilary Finch for The Times, 9th September 2002
Rating 4 stars
The new season at the Wigmore Hall will be William Lyne’s last as director. Before he retires in May 2003, the Hall will feature his favourite music and musicians (and they tend to be Europe’s, too) in a Director’s Festival, starting in November. Two of the singers enjoyed a preview appearance on this reopening night: the Austrian mezzo Angelika Kirchschlager, and our own Don Giovanni and Billy Budd supreme, Simon Keenlyside.
Those roles came to mind simply because there are times when Keenlyside seems ill at ease in recitals: when the energy, physicality and dramatic instinct in him seems constrained by the conventions of it all. So it was that he found little of the hermit’s focus in Schubert’s Die Einseidelei; and, with the pianist Julius Drake’s brisk tread, fascinatingly drew out an almost impatient restlessness and anxiety from Der Wanderer an den Mond.
Kirchschlager, meanwhile, had been singing of anguished love and starry skies with a new expansiveness of voice. It clearly fired Keenlyside’s responses in two duets by Schumann, Er und Sie and Schön ist das Fest des Lenzes. By the time a generous selection of Hugo Wolf’s Mörike Lieder got underway, Keenlyside began to be in his element.
Inspired by the challenge of creating a honey-sweet scenario for Der Knabe und das Immlein, the darkest reaches of his baritone resonated through the nightmarish, shadowy vowels of In der Frühe, to be finally freed, in half-voice, by the wonder of the morning bells.
An intense Lebe wohl from Kirchschlager, a moody and impulsive Der Jäger from Keenlyside — and it was time for the interval. Schumann returned and, with his long Goethe setting, the Ballade des Harfners, Keenlyside began to take centre stage. His artistry may be volatile, but when confidently focused its engagement found out those interpretative parts which Kirchschlager’s albeit eloquent Mignon songs never quite reached.
Both singers were finally perfectly attuned in Ich und Du, a rare sampling of the Lieder of Peter Cornelius, and in the five Brahms songs which framed it. Flute, fiddle, zither, and the trembling of love itself reverberated through Keenlyside’s Ständchen; Kirchschlager looked long and deep into Dein blaues Auge; and their final duets propelled the Wigmore’s new season exuberantly on its way.