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Recital

Sunday, 23 February 2003, 3pm

Hertz Hall, Berkeley University, California

Angelika Kirchschlager, mezzo-soprano

Simon Keenlyside, baritone

Craig Rutenberg (standing in for an indisposed Graham Johnson), piano

Programme: Part 1

Franz Schubert:

·        Lambertine, D. 301 AK

·        Der liebliche Stern, D. 861 (The lovely star)  AK

·        Die Einsiedelei, D. 393 (The hermitage)  SK

·        Der Wanderer an den Mond, D. 870 (The wanderer to the moon)   SK

Robert Schumann:

·        Er und Sie, Op. 78, No.2 (He and she)  AK, SK

·        Schön ist das Fest des Lenzes, Op. 37, No.7 (The feast of springtime is nice)  AK, SK

·        In der Nacht, Op. 74, No. 4 (At night)  AK, SK

·        Wiegenlied am Lager eines kranken Kindes, Op. 78, No.4 (Lullaby at the cradle of a sick child)  AK, SK

Hugo Wolf :

·        Selections from Morike Lieder

·        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

Programme: Part 2

Peter Cornelius:

·        Der beste Liebesbrief, Op. 6, No. 2 (The best loveletter)  AK, SK

Robert Schumann:

·        Ballade des Harfners, Op. 98, No. 2 (Ballad of the harper)  SK

·        Lied der Mignon II – Heiß mich nicht reden, Op. 98, No. 5 (Mignon’s song – Don’t ask me to speak)  AK

·        Lied der Mignon III – So laßt mich scheinen, Op. 98, No. 9 (Mignon’s song – Let me appear like this)  AK

·        Lied der Mignon III - Kennst du das Land?, Op. 98, No. 1 Mignon’s Gesang (Mignon’s song – Do you know the land)  AK

Franz Schubert:

·        Nur wer die Sehnsucht kennt, Op. 61, No. 1 (Mignon and the harper)   AK, SK

·        Ganymed, D. 544 SK

·        Suleika II, D. 717 AK

Johannes Brahms:

·        Ständchen, Op. 106, No.1 (Serenade)  SK

Peter Cornelius:

·        Ich und Du (Me and you)  AK, SK

Johannes Brahms:

Encores

Franz Shubert:

·        L'incanto degli occhi SK

·        Florio AK

What the critics say

Lieder singing, cabaret style
Duo's light touch keeps serious German music entertaining

Joshua Kosman for the San Francisco Chronicle, 25 February 2003

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/02/25/DD212833.DTL

“During their joint recital Sunday afternoon in Berkeley's Hertz Hall, mezzo- soprano Angelika Kirchschlager and baritone Simon Keenlyside did more than simply serve up two hours of immensely satisfying lieder singing. They also had fun doing it.”

“In an event that often took on the easy, breezy charm of a cabaret act, the two singers joked casually with the audience and each other, injecting a note of lightness into a program whose music -- by Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, Wolf and Cornelius -- was mostly on the serious side.”

“When Kirchschlager suffered a memory lapse midway through Wolf's "Lied eines Verliebten," she shrugged it off with an irresistibly girlish laugh and began again. Keenlyside also did his part to keep things entertaining.”

“Keenlyside's most striking moment, oddly enough, came in his encore, a suave and impeccably elegant account of Schubert's "L'incanto degli occhi." But he provided other pleasures as well, including an easygoing account of Brahms' "Standchen," Op. 106, No. 1, and a broad-beamed, nicely controlled rendition of Schubert's "Ganymed."”

San Francisco Classical Voice

Walk Right In, Sit Right Down…

By Stephanie Friedman

Two stars from the international galaxy of opera and recital stages dropped down from their firmament Sunday afternoon and landed with something of a thud on the Hertz Hall platform. Their program of solo and duo lieder was occasionally sludgy and long (32 songs), and not even Angelika Kirchschlager's girlish charm or Simon Keenlyside's boyish smile and winning buck-and-wing dance could relieve its longueurs or make up for a program that seemed to have no plan, making it instead feel even longer.

The two singers seemed in some ways to want to be somewhere else. Kirchschlager forgot her words in the middle of a song and had to start again, and she often didn't know where on stage she was supposed to be at a given moment. Keenlyside, in spite of a rich, color-laden voice, occasionally sounded slightly hoarse and mopped his brow and his face repeatedly, possibly indicating an ailment. The two exchanged whispered asides to each other, and Kirchschlager's frequent remarks addressed to the audience, whether jocular or explanatory, were largely inaudible to a sizable portion of them.

There is nothing wrong with putting oneself — and an audience — at ease, but in this case all the busy doings distracted from the program and made it more difficult for the singers to gather their forces. I kept thinking someone in the audience should stand up and offer them a respite from their labors in the form of a nice cup of tea, comfy chairs, and a homey chat. They seemed to need a rest.

The better moments

That said, there were some bright spots. A group of Mörike settings by Hugo Wolf, as well as some songs and duets by Schumann, occasioned some of the performers' best moments. Kirchschlager showed her histrionic ability in a passionate commitment to Wolf's "Ein Stündlein wohl vor Tag" (An Hour Before Day) and in the final stanza of Schumann's "Kennst du das Land" (Do you know the Land) from Goethe's Wilhelm Meister.

But the same passion metamorphosed into scenery chewing that threatened to turn the last lines of Wolf's setting of Mörike 's "Lebe wohl" (Farewell) from a bitter song into an operatic aria; and the forte written for the last line of Brahms's "Dein blaues Auge (Your blue eyes) occasioned a blast on the word "Und" (and) that even Brahms, who maliciously (or heedlessly) placed the unimportant word on the highest note of the line, would have found senseless. Too often Kirchschlager, instead of penetrating the dynamic markings for the emotional reasons that called them forth, chose to simply follow the fortes and pianos perfunctorily, making her delivery disappointingly unvaried.

An opening group of songs by Schubert did not catch fire until the fourth piece, a wonderful song to a poem by Johann Gabriel Seidl, "Der Wanderer an den Mond" (The wanderer speaks to the moon). The inspired song called forth a sensitive performance from both singer (Keenlyside) and accompanist (the reliable Craig Rutenberg, who took over on a few days' notice for an ailing Graham Johnson). Keenlyside's rendition of Wolf's famous "Auf einer Wanderung" (On a walk), on the other hand, was competent but not revelatory, and the contrast between the night and morning sections of the Wolf gem "In der Frühe" (At daybreak) could have been more deeply felt. But both were better than his lackluster, uninvolved performance of Schubert's somewhat overrated "Ganymed" (Goethe).

A versatile voice

Nevertheless, Keenlyside's voice is a lovely instrument, and he commands a range of color that enabled him to sound alternately, in Wolf's "Das Knabe und das Immlein" (The boy and the bee), like a young boy and the epitome of a romantic baritone. His hearty, magnificent tone in Schumann's "Ballade des Harfners" (The Harper's Ballad), also from Wilhelm Meister, saved the lengthy, rambling narration from being oppressively long. He sounded like the complete German lieder singer in his smooth, eloquent delivery of the beautifully Schumannesque line "Ich singe, wie der Vogel singt" (I sing as does the bird) from the Harper's song.

The pair combined to sing Schumann's heart-rending "In der Nacht" (In the night) from the Spanisches Liederbuch (Spanish Songbook). "Alle gingen, Herz, zur Ruh" (All have gone, heart, to their rest), sung by the mezzo, sets out the theme of the six-line stanza. The baritone joins her on the last line, repeating the opening theme, and the two voices recapitulate the song in a development section of passionately intertwining lines that urge each other forward. Kirchschlager and Keenlyside adequately realized the duet's piercing beauty, but the mezzo sang without a sense of the shape of the lines, ignoring, for example, the aching need for a portamento downward on the word "Sinnen" (thoughts). Attention to details like this one would have allowed the piece to bloom. As it was, it sounded merely driven.

The encores were two Schubert Italian songs: "L'incanto degli occhi"(The song of the eyes) of Metastasio, sung with assurance and suave ornamentation by Keenlyside; and "Florio," Kirchschlager's spirited offering.

A not-so-minor quibble: the program contained too many typos, and most of the names of the poets were not included.

(Stephanie Friedman, mezzo-soprano, is retired from more than three decades of singing in opera and concert, here and abroad.)

©2003 Stephanie Friedman, all rights reserved