Schwanengesang HERE
Die Schöne Müllerin HERE
Winterreise HERE
After 40 years of listening to Lieder, I've heard a lot. But Boesch and Martineau reveal so much more with the depth of their interpretation and the clarity of expression.
HERE is a link to my review of their Winterreise at the Wigmore Hall in Dec 2012.
HERE is a link to my review of Die Schõne Müllerin at the Wigmore Hall in March 2012. When he sang it in October that year at the Oxford Lieder festival, he was even deeper, even more convincing. I was so overwhelmed that I could not write it up. Just as Matthias Goerne's first Die schõne Müllerin with Eric Schneider changed the way we hear the songs, so too does Boesch's Die schõne Müllerin help us find new depths in this amazing music. Please read Boesch's insights here in this keynote interview "Strong minded Die schône Müllerin"
I heard Boesch and Martineau’s Schubert song-cycles performances in Glasgow, and all three were deeply rewarding. Boesch is indeed an exceptional lieder singer. But I’m not so sure about “the best” - that surely depends on what one want from the cycles. Since these days it is usual to look at everything from the human angle it probably seems odd to admit that, for me, seeking psychological clues in every detail is actually slightly limiting. A few days ago I attended a master-class in London with Wolfgang Holzmair, and was interested when, in one song, he distinguished references to the real natural world from references to nature as symbolic of the protagonist’s state of mind, and though he didn’t expand his ideas, it seemed to me that the dichotomy can lend itself to exploring a wider variety of mood (at which he himself is adept) than a purely human-orientated line.
ReplyDeleteOf course Winterreise in particular is usually analysed in psychological terms, with every incident interpreted in terms of an inner struggle. So I am in a minority (of one) when listening to Die Krahe because my first thought is not of the wanderer’s fears (or hopes, depending on how one looks at it), but of a raven that circled over my head when I was descending a Scottish mountain; the evening was closing in and dark wings spread above formidable talons made it only too easy understand why ravens are death symbols - until he flew up into the sky and we realised, with considerable relief, that he had been merely guarding a nest on the rocky cliff. I like the sense of ambivalence, and of experiencing things at different levels, that comes from shifting between the real world and the world of the mind. So while I greatly admired Boesch’s singing, and the interplay with Martineau, I remain open to alternative approaches!