Mark Padmore (b.1961) started his musical activities as a clarinetist
and singer. During the early 1980s he sang with The Sixteen
and the Hilliard Ensemble. With the Hilliards he can be heard
on ‘Perotinus’, an ECM album that has meanwhile
achieved legendary status. In the 1990s he worked as a soloist
with William Christie, Philippe Herreweghe and John Eliot Gardiner,
and was much sought after as the Evangelist in the Passions
of Johann Sebastian Bach. In 2002 he appeared for the first
time in a lieder recital, singing Schubert’s ‘Die
Schöne Müllerin’. His accompanist, Roger Vignoles,
encouraged him to concentrate on the lied repertoire, and as
a result, Padmore now spends a large amount of his time on the
recital podium. He performs with seasoned accompanists: Julius
Drake, Graham Johnson and Malcolm Martineau, and has also forged
performing relationships with famous pianists: Imogen Cooper,
Till Fellner and Paul Lewis. The latter accompanied him in very
successful recordings of Schubert’s great song-cycles,
‘Die Winterreise’ and ‘Die Schöne Müllerin’.
For his most recent recital tour Padmore opted for a collaboration
with fortepianist Kristian Bezuidenhout, an artist who was invited
by Harmonia Mundi to record Mozart’s complete solo piano
music. Padmore dedicated his tour to the poet Heinrich Heine,
who was a fount of inspiration for Franz Schubert. Robert Schumann
visited Vienna in 1838, ten years after Schubert’s death,
and became acquainted with the older composer’s Ninth
Symphony and the song cycles ‘Winterreise’, ‘Müllerin’
and ‘Schwanengesang’. Despite the fact that Schumann
initially looked down on the Lied phenomenon, but in
1840, just married to Clara, in his new role as family man felt
obliged to provide a more substantial income. Considering the
popularity of the lied genre with the middle class in those
days, publishing songs was a logical way to bolster his wages.
Schumann’s preference for Heinrich Heine was no coincidence.
Heine’s ‘Das Buch der Lieder’, published in
1820, enjoyed an immense popularity and inspired nineteenth-century
composers to write no less than 8000 songs. On this CD five
of those are placed between Schumann’s opp. 24 and 48.
They were selected from the volume ‘Sängerfahrt’
by Franz Paul Lachner (1803-1890). During the last two years
of Schubert’s life Lachner befriended Schubert, who was
six years his senior. Lachner’s music pays homage to Schubert,
and some of his settings employ texts that were also set by
Schubert and Schumann. On this recital they are ‘Im Mai’,
the opening song of ‘Dichterliebe’ (‘Im wunderschönen
Monat Mai’), and ‘Das Fischermädchen’,
also known in a setting by Schubert. They are a resounding testimony
to the difference between talent and genius.
On the recordings of Schubert’s ‘Die Winterreise’
and ‘Die schöne Müllerin’ pianist Paul
Lewis opted for a modern Steinway. Kristian Bezuidenhout decided
upon an 1837 Erard, not exactly a brand that one would associate
with Robert and Clara Schumann. Add that Bezuidenhout has his
very own and very free way with Mozart, as performed on his
first disc for Harmonia Mundi, and a bit of trepidation might
well be expected from the prospective listener. Luckily things
work out to the contrary: Bezuidenhout lets the music speak
for itself, and his instrument sparkles and buzzes quite stylishly.
This is exactly the kind of sound on which Padmore’s light
tenor rides easily.
Padmore’s voice fits in the tradition of his countrymen
Peter Pears, Anthony Rolfe Johnson and Philip Langridge - sadly
the last two passed away last year. It carries less weight than
Langridge’s, and sounds slightly less warm than Rolfe
Johnson’s. Another difference from his great predecessors
is that his lighter tenor is not (yet) capable of an operatic
role like Peter Grimes. On the British music scene Ian Bostridge,
who has an even lighter sound, is another singer who occupies
himself on the same level with this repertoire. He has also
recorded Schubert’s great cycles, and has also sought
the collaboration of famous pianists like Leif Ove Andsnes and
Mitsuko Ushida. Both tenors excel in very clear diction, a phenomenon
that appears more often with vocalists that have to sing outside
their native language. A slight British accent is a small price
to pay.
The differences in interpretation between Bostridge and Padmore
are enormous. In a few words: Bostridge ‘interprets’
and in doing so discovers all kinds of detail that detracts
from the essential. In Heine’s woods he pauses at every
tree, thus managing to distract from the music and putting his
own persona between the composer and the public. Padmore lets
the notes speak for themselves, tries to erase himself, and
puts the composer center-stage. Better yet, in his own words,
he wants, above all, the poet’s voice to be heard. Both
artists have a substantial following. The content of this disc
was also the program of Padmore and Bezuidenhout’s recital
tour. The concerts they gave in Carnegie and Wigmore Halls met
with large audiences and were very favorably discussed in the
press. Both Padmore and Bezuidenhout possess rich and sympathetic
communicative powers; on CD we have only the sound to consider,
but the enjoyment does not suffer. In the song ‘Im Rhein,
im heiligen Strome’, with its baritonal opening register,
Padmore lacks somewhat in strength, but is royally compensated
for that in Bezuidenhout’s sharply etched rhythms - something
that seems to stem from his experience in older music.
‘Dichterliebe’ belongs with ‘Winterreise’
and ‘Müllerin’ in the top five of most beloved
song-cycles, and has, in the course of recorded history, been
taped numerous times. Peter Schreier immediately springs to
mind as an unforgettable performer in this repertoire. Every
generation has its own favourites, who might well be intolerable
for the next one - something that becomes apparent upon listening
again to the classic performance of Lotte Lehmann and Bruno
Walter. Mark Padmore is a tenor for the twenty-first century
and in Kris Bezuidenhout he has found an ideal partner. The
choice of the instrument plays no mean role in all of this.
Together they make a new noise, which has been captured in ideal
acoustic circumstances.
Siebe Riedstra
www.opusklassiek.nl
Masterwork Index: Dichterliebe
Mark Padmore (tenor), Kristian Bezuidenhout (fortepiano)
