Andreas Scholl Wigmore Hall - Art and folk, defying boundaries

Eclectic programming, as we can expect at the Wigmore Hall. Andreas Scholl and Tamar Halperin performed a very unusual selection showing the close connection between popular song and art song.  Snobs who sneer at crossover don't know music history. Scholl, being a countertenor has long enjoyed exploring early song, created long before the dividing lines between classical and pop were even defined. Read Oswald von Wolkenstein, King of the Road, for example where Scholl  sings the songs of a 14th century singer/songwriter who travelled across Europe in the company of soldiers, troubadours and other adventurers, a prototype perhaps of the Jacques Brels and  Bob  Dylans of our time.

Scholl set the mood with a song by Joseph Kilna Mackenzie, a hit on the modern folk circuit, and featured in a movie. It's a Highland lament, but utterly original.  Sergeant Mackenzie was a real person, who died heroically in the First World War, and a relative of the composer  The song thus connects to oral tradition although it's thoroughly through composed. The voice intones with grave dignity, while a drone wails around it, suggesting bagpipes or some even more primeval instruments. Scholl's voice ranges from  tenor to near falsetto: no fixed notions about fach, here, just pure and very personal music.  Then on to Randy Newman In Germany Before the War, a far less effective song, and Chava Alberstein (born 1947)  Ikh shtey unter a Bokserboym,  a modern Israeli version of a Yiddish folk song.  All three songs connect thematically, the artists responding to the troubled times of our era. Perhaps  pop reaches audience who need the message most.

Back to Scholl's "home territory" with a transcription of Machaut (Douce Dame Jolie) and three songs by Benjamin Britten based on traditional airs, like Greensleeves, Down by the Salley Gardens and The Ash Grove. Nobody quite sings these as evocatively as Scholl, whose agile voice gives them a magical elusiveness that seems almost not of this mundane world.  Maybe folk song should be gruff and rough, but Scholl shows how magical and artistic they can be.

Folk song traditions were created by women, as much as by men. Thus Sasha Argov: Shir Éress - "Lullaby", another "modern Israeli folk song.  The timbre is so high that it suits Scholl's voice perfectly,  Tamar Halperin played Debussy: Jimbo's Lullaby from Children's Corner and Janacek: Our Evenings from On an Overgrown Path with great sensitivity., and two of her own transcriptions of traditional melodies, black is the colour of my true love's hair and I gave my love an apple, enhanced by Scholl;'s plaintive, plangent singing.

The Lochamer Liederbuch of 1460 is the earliest published collection of early German song. It connects not only to popular folk song but also to Minnesang, the artistic lyrical song tradition that pre-dates "classical" song and Lieder. Scholl and Halperin ended with settings from Brahms Volkslieder collections, Darunter in Tal, All mein' Gedanken and In stiller Nacht. Long before most other composers, and British composers in particular, Brahms revived the simple humanity of folk music in a thoroughly "modern", distinctive way of his own. To emphasize the point, Scholl and Halperin then did a new version of In Stiller Nacht. Tradition lives on, ancient heritage inspires a brave new future.

Oswald von Wolkenstein, King of the Road

Oswald von Wolkenstein (1366-1445) and the 60's hippie/ C&W hit? Remember the refrain "I'm a man of means, by no means, King of the Road? Oswald was born into the aristocracy, but not firstborn, so as a young boy he took to the road as men did then, travelling with other dispossessed knights, troubadours  and guns for hire (were there guns, and not lances and swords). Sometimes they'd be mercenaries, sometimes poets, but they wandered around Europe without borders, "looking for adventure" as rock stars might say.

"I have been in warm and cold places, in misery and poverty, bei cristen, Kreichen, haiden" (Christians, Orthodox and heathens) He describes how he lived by his wits in ten languages in two long monologues Es fügt sich (It happened). Along the way he got religion, became a monk, got married and had numerous sexual relationships. In that order and otherwise.

Wolkenstein was no fool. Unusually among the poet/musicians of his age, he kept manuscripts, so we can hear his work today and get a glimpse into medieval life that wasn't cleaned up by Church or State. There's a wonderful new CD out now, of Wolkenstein's songs, with Andreas Scholl and Shield of Harmony, 14th century period specialists. It's called "Songs of Myself" because Oswald von Wolkenstein was singing about himself from first-person experience. But there's also wider meaning. The recording was made live in the tiny St Valentinuskirche, Kiedrich, in Hesse. Wolkenstein certainly travelled in the vicinity, thougfh it's not known if he visited the church. It's now the only place in the world where plainchant is still sung in "Mainz dialect".

But the small church is central to the life of Andreas Scholl. This is where he first started singing, as a choirboy aged 7, just as generations of his family had done before him. He went on, like Wolkenstein, to find fame and fortune in the wider world, but Kiedrich is his grounding place. The CD is dedicated to the memory of his sister, one of the few choirgirls at the time, who died too young, and to his father who died two years before the recording was made.  Scholl is sublime almost without exception, but on this disc  he's singing with even more intensity than usual; he knows the significance of the performance. Heartfelt sincerity and tenderness, as if he's distilling the experience of generations of Kiedrichers over the centuries. This CD is unique because it's so personal, and so moving.

I won't write about the songs as it's repertoire I know nothing about and can't fake. But listen to this, even if you wouldn't normally dream of listening to the genre. I love this recording because it's beautiful and timeless. I can imagine sitting in darkness, the thick stone walls staying cold even when its hot outside, and thinking of the invisible thousands who've passed through before. Wolkenstein would probably feel quite at home in the modern world. With this disc, we can feel at home in his.

Andreas Scholl sings Cowboy

Andreas Scholl and Philippe Jaroussky at the Barbican tonight. Together they can be even better than on their own because of the rapport. Normally I don't listen to BBC Radio 3 drive time, but last night Scholl was interviewed.  When Scholl first  burst onto the scene no-one could quite believe what an amazing singer he was, but what was even more amazing was his personality. More than 20 years later, he's still the same genuine, down to earth fellow. Listen to the interview. Scholl is what they call a "whole person". The interview can be heard online, on demand until next week. Scholl shows what it means to live. The singing follows naturally. Which is why I've used this clip. Or "not". :-)))