Since his debut in 1981 Julius Drake has grown to
become one of the most sought after accompanists in the world and his
discography is long and impressive. I remember hearing him at Wigmore
Hall (as here), accompanying the legendary tenor Hugues Cuénod
who gave a full-length recital to celebrate his 86th birthday. He was
a new name to me then but I knew instinctively that I would be able
to hear him many times in the future - at least on record. Here he follows
Alice Coote like a shadow, finding appropriate colours to underline
her interpretation.
The first four songs launch her view on this ever-fascinating cycle:
nervous, eager, youthful. Then in
Der Lindenbaum she calms down
to the most delicious sincerity. I don’t believe I have ever heard
it more beautifully sung. The cold winds blow just as chillingly as
ever but she soon regains her reflective mood: Many hours have passed
since I left that place.
Wasserflut is as inwardly private as any reading I have heard
and that also goes for
Auf dem Flusse. The chill, the unease
is there in her reading, but the biggest emotions are calmed down, or
masked, but behind the small gestures one imagines a big black hole
in the traveller’s soul. Drake provides the undercurrent.
Listen to
Rückblick, the almost
Erlkönig-like
frenzy in the accompaniment and then Alice Coote sings
Wie anders
hast du mich empfangen with beautiful simplicity. And hear how in
Irrlicht the will-o’-the-wisp flutters in the piano and
how Alice Coote in the last stanza darkens the timbre - for a moment
only - only to finish the song with the loveliest singing imaginable.
Rast is also a masterly reading with myriads of nuances,
Frühlingstraum
masterly too, deeply felt and
Einsamkeit depicting loneliness
so graphically.
The second half of the cycle opens with the initially optimistic
Die
Post. The mood changes drastically:
Die Post bringt keinen Brief
für dich, and the galloping accompaniment underpins the loneliness,
the emptiness.
The rest of the cycle is a nightmarish walk towards the unavoidable,
but it is far from finished yet.
Wie weit noch bis zur Bahre!
(How far still to the grave) she sings in
Der greise Kopf, but
adds
Vom Abendrot zum Morgenlicht / Ward mancher Kopf zum Greise.
/ Wer glaubt’s? Und meiner ward es nicht / Auf dieser ganzen Reise!
(Between dusk and dawn / Many a head has turned grey / Yet mine, would
you believe it, has not / Throughout this whole journey!) As it darkens
along the road the songs become ever more beautiful and gripping and
Alice Coote and Julius Drake convey both aspects. The wanderer is left
alone. A crow has followed her but also disappears. She reaches a graveyard
and contemplates it as a resting-point for the night. But all the rooms
are taken in this inn. The bitterness in the singer’s voice becomes
ever more tangible.
Die Nebensonnen marks the definitive farewell
from reality, the most gripping of all the songs. When she meets the
organ-grinder she is already on her way to the other side.
Together Alice Coote and Julius Drake have guided us with deep empathy
and musical good taste along this emotional wandering and left longstanding
imprint in at least one listener. Judging from the ovations in Wigmore
Hall, that was the effect on the audience that night too. After the
last chord in
Winterreise I want complete silence for at least
ten seconds. An enthusiastic audience naturally want to show the artists
how much they were appreciated - and who can resist joining in? For
domestic listening I would have liked the producer to edit out the applause
before putting the finished disc on the market. It comes as a blow right
in solar plexus after such an intense rendition of the song cycle. This
is, however, the only blemish and though I will still cherish Brigitte
Fassbaender and Natalie Stutzmann in this repertoire, Alice Coote will
be added to that duo in my affection.
Göran Forsling
Masterwork Index:
Winterreise
Track listing
1.
Gute Nacht [5:15]
2.
Die Wetterfahne [1:51]
3.
Gefrorne Tränen [2:23]
4.
Erstarrung [2:56]
5.
Der Lindenbaum [5:20]
6.
Wasserflut [4:12]
7.
Auf dem Flusse [3:55]
8.
Rückblick [2:19]
9.
Irrlicht [2:41]
10.
Rast [3:39]
11.
Frühlingstraum [4:40]
12.
Einsamkeit [3:05]
13.
Die Post [2:15]
14.
Der greise Kopf [3:25]
15.
Die Krähe [1:55]
16.
Letzte Hoffnung [2:20]
17.
Im Dorfe [3:42]
18.
Der stürmische Morgen [0:48]
19.
Täuschung [1:17]
20.
Der Wegweiser [4:51]
21.
Das Wirtshaus [4:45]
22.
Mut! [1:20]
23.
Die Nebensonnen [3:25]
24.
Der Leiermann [5:06]
