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SEEN AND HEARD  RECITAL REVIEW
 

Beethoven and  Schubert:  Mark Padmore (tenor) Roger Vignoles (piano) Wigmore Hall, London, 24.5.2008  (ME)

Beethoven: An die Ferne Geliebte
Schubert:  Schwanengesang


Pairing Beethoven’s only song cycle with Schubert’s last one has seemed logical since Alfred Brendel and Matthias Goerne united them at the Queen Elizabeth Hall and subsequently here at the Wigmore, but this evening’s version was of a different order to Goerne’s romantic sensibility and Brendel’s cerebral authority. Indeed, I felt that neither singer nor accompanist had really got fully acquainted with the Beethoven in the way in which, say, Padmore seemed to have sung Die Schöne Müllerin into his voice on Monday night. Rendered a little shaky by the arrival of some latecomers, the opening of An die ferne Geliebte lacked intensity until the beautifully sustained ‘Singen will ich, Lieder singen / Die dir klagen meine Pein!’ and although the vorspiel to ‘Wo die Berge so blau’ found Vignoles in much more characteristically elegant form, the song felt muted rather than reflective.

There is a kind of breathless intensity, a youthful exuberance to nearly all of Beethoven’s songs which Padmore and Vignoles either just do not catch or regard as irrelevant – ‘Es kehret der Maien’ was finely played and very mellifluously sung, but as for any sense of ‘Lieber Mai,’ you might have been hearing about February. Padmore was at his best in the closing song, the crucial ‘Sehnsucht’ subtly highlighted and ‘Dann vor diesen Liedern weichet’ given exactly the right aura of devotion. The same could be said of the opening group – Maigesang was sung carefully, neatly, but with little ardour, and I could not help but recall the first time I heard Fischer-Dieskau sing this song, with such fervour that phrases like ‘O Erd’, o Sonne! O Glück, o Lust!’ seemed to leap up and grab me by the hand.  Adelaide, the closing work of this group was more successful, ‘dein Bildnis’ ambitiously phrased and the final ‘Einst, o Wünder!’ achieving some of the desired ecstasy.

Of course we all know that Schwanenegesang is not really a song cycle in the truest sense, but it loses nothing by being performed as one. Padmore and Vignoles were very much at home with most of the Rellstab settings, even if Liebesbotschaft was a little short on attention to phrases such as ‘silbern und hell’ and ‘Wiege das Liebchen in Schlummer ein’ where I would have liked to hear a little more tenderness. Ständchen began a little mutedly but touched the heights with a very apt trill on ‘Kennen Liebesschmerz’ and Abschied was markedly animated, although the piano supplied most of the sparkle.

The heavier Rellstab settings and some of the great Heine songs were works in progress, the voice not really comfortable with their demands. Ihr Bild however was a decided statement, sung with fluent phrasing at ‘Heimlich zu Leben begann’ and anguished at ‘verloren hab.’ Padmore clearly loves Die Taubenpost  and although he and Vignoles took it a bit too slowly for my liking, this was still a notable performance, those heartbreaking final lines as affecting as they have ever sounded.

The encore provided the unexpected pleasure of hearing Stephen Isserlis in Auf dem Strom, which Padmore sang with commitment, and the evening was recorded for broadcast by BBC Radio 3 on June 11^th.

Melanie Eskenazi   

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