On this day in 1918, the composer Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry died. Parry is best known today for his sacred music, and in particular the rousing tune to William Blake’s text for Jerusalem, and the anthem I Was Glad, used in many a royal service.
Mark Padmore (tenor, above), Jonathan Biss (piano, below)
Wigmore Hall, London Thursday 24 September (lunchtime)
Schubert Der Wanderer an den Mond D870 (1826), Im Freien D880 (1826), Der Einsame D800 (1825), Der Winterabend D938 (1828) Schumann Kerner Lieder Op.35
Reviewed by Ben Hogwood Photo credits Marco Borggreve and Benjamin Ealovega
Storytelling is of course an essential part of any Lieder recital, but the extent to which Mark Padmore and Jonathan Biss brought the seventeen songs of this BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert to life was a joy to behold.
Padmore is one of Britain’s finest tenors, a versatile artist at ease in contemporary music as he equally is in Bach or Britten, for instance, with one of his strongest qualities an elegance to the delivery that suited these brighter examples of Schubert’s song output. So, too, did the pianism of Jonathan Biss, finding and projecting all of the composer’s countermelodies with consummate ease.
The pair began in the moonlight – naturally – Der Wanderer an den Mond beginning in strident fashion before the brighter light of its major key second half. Biss then led the phrasing for a beautifully poised account of Im Freien, before the chirpy crickets of Der Einsame raised a smile. In a magical account of Der Winterabend, from the early part of Schubert’s final year, time was taken to evoke the long evening and the slowly falling snow, with a memorable turn towards blissful peace, as tenor and pianist found themselves in easy, slow moving alignment.
The calm repose cast by this song was rudely broken by Schumann’s arresting Lust der Sturmnacht, the switch from sonorous B flat major to turbulent E flat minor something of a jolt. In his Kerner Lieder, Schumann writes less of a thematically linked cycle, but a common thread to the songs are their capture the feverish passions, good and bad, of his new marriage to Clara. Though there is union and delight in the potential happiness ahead, some of the songs are fraught and wracked with worry, making the group ripe for dramatic concert performance.
Padmore and Biss (above) homed in on the drama of Justinus Kerner’s verse, the tenor allowing his voice to fray a little when the emotion of the song demanded it. Such moments occurred towards the top of the register in Stille Liebe and Stirb’, Lieb’ und Freud’!, where earlier in the song he had clasped his hands in reverent prayer.
Auf das Trinkglas eines verstorbenen Freundes was a captivating centre piece of the cycle, majestic and sombre in equal turn, while the rousing Wanderung had the musical effect of putting on boots and coat for a long walk. Heights of expression were found in the devotional love expressed in Sehnsucht nach der Waldgegend, a Christmas present for Schumann’s new wife in the year of composition.
The extremes of movement made the stillness of Alte Laute all the more affecting, Padmore’s control held to perfection while Biss ensured once again that the phrases of Schumann’s countermelodies were beautifully sculpted.
As Padmore said, few encores could be entertained in the light of such a moving musical paragraph, yet one fitted perfectly – Schubert’s Frühlingsglaube, D686, lightening the mood without changing the tonality or elegance of delivery.
Padmore and Biss continue to finish each other’s sentence in this ideally matched partnership, at ease in each other’s company to forego obvious gestures other than the musical – which in this case resulted in a very special hour of music indeed.
You can listen back to this concert until 4 November on BBC Sounds
Today I was fortunate to attend the Wigmore Hall, a lunchtime concert in which tenor Mark Padmore and pianist Jonathan Biss gave a recital of songs by Schubert and Schumann. More of that tomorrow, but in watching the concert I had the privilege of sitting next to Dame Mitsuko Uchida.
This unexpected treat yielded some memorable mini-conversations – of which more another time – but it sent me looking for Padmore and Uchida herself together in Schubert, signing off from the Schwanengesang song cycle with the postlude, Die Taubenpost:
by Ben Hogwood. Photo of Mstislav Rostropvich in 1959 by RIA Novosti archive, courtesy of Wikipedia
On this day in 1959 the premiere took place in Leningrad of Shostakovich‘s Cello Concerto no.1. The soloist was Mstislav Rostropovich, to whom the concerto was dedicated. Here he is as soloist, an indomitable force:
Steve Reich: New York City, May 2005 Credit: Jeffrey Herman
by Ben Hogwood
Steve Reich is 90.
Steve Reich is 90 and I’m listening…
Steve Reich is 90 and I’m listening to everything…
Steve Reich is 90 and I’m listening to everything he’s published.
Steve Reich is 90 and I’m listening to everything he’s published. Join me
Steve Reich is 90 and I’m listening to everything he’s published. Join me on the journey!
That’s right – one of the most original and influential composers of the second half of the twentieth century – and the first quarter of the twenty-first – has reached his 90th birthday. I’m intending to listen to everything he has had published in a series called ‘Pulse Music’ – a label Reich decided fitted his musical approach rather well.
I’ll begin with the tape pieces – It’s Gonna Rain, Melodica, Come Out…and wind up with the recent compositions Traveler’s Prayer, Jacob’s Ladder and In All Your Ways.
It promises to be an inspirational and fun experience…so please do come along for the journey!
