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E#$ 1ilsonSelect"lus results for2 3!42 classical and
!42 singer30 Record *, of *5
&ull-text source2 1ilsonSelect"lus
Lieder2 an apology for
intimacy0
Author2 Bilic/ "aul0 Source2 6e4 Statesman ( Society v0 + 7ar0 ,,
*++89 p0 5,-5
:SS62 .+;<-,58* 6umber2 BSS:+8.*;+*= #opyright2 The maga>ine
publisher is the
copyright holder of this article and it is reproduced 4ith permission0
&urther reproduction
of this article in violation of the copyright is prohibited0
?The 36e4 #lassical Spectacular --usic/ Lights/ Lasers/ Spectacle0
#lassic 000 after
#lassic 000 after #lassic 000 Da>>ling multi-coloured laser display0?0
ethin!s the Royal Albert Hall 6e4 #lassical Spectacular/ complete
4ith massed bands/
the Royal "hilharmonic #oncert $rchestra/ live cannons and
mus!ets/ fancy choirs and
big voices/ ?6essun Dorma? and Ravel3s Bolero/ plus $de to @oy/
"omp and
#ircumstance/ doth protest 4ay too much0
#lassical music is going through its *+=.s roc! mass phase0 6o hall/
no orchestra is
royal enough for it0 6o metropolitan par! is large enough to contain it0
Aolume and
emotions run high/ so high they bust the mar!eting clapometer0 A
tenor--a primeval
scream 4ith mellifluous vibrato--belts it out and behind him runs the
entire orchestra/
heaving and baying0 The trio of "avarotti/ Domingo and #arreras--a
!ind of fat Ta!e
That/ mates yet rivals/ *.. per cent testosterone--slap each other on
the bac! and Bostle
for pole position in an unashamed display of mar!et-oriented
machismo0 :f this 4eren3t
classical music/ one might say it 4as vulgarity personified0 Let3s Bust
call it ugly0
:n recent attempts to reveal to us the merits of classical music/ only
grand sound and
searing up-front emotion have been boasted of0 ECually/ attempts to
upbeat the televised
classical concert 4ith as many changes of camera angle as a Top of
the "ops ditty miss
the point0 Dou 4ould thin! a punter investigating the alien 4orld of
classical sounds might
be loo!ing for a change in rhythm perhaps/ the licence for once to
slip into introspective
mould in an unpumped-up universe0
The pared-do4n narrative voice of the lieder singer challenges us to
exercise a different
order of appreciative faculty0 The art song/ as lied used to be termed/
calls for a voice to
register restraint and control and to dramatise an entire narrative li!e
a storyteller0 1ithin
the space of a fe4 minutes the singer may interpret the narrator plus
a range of
characters--4itness Schubert3s Erl!oenig 4here narrator/ father/ son
and monstrous
Erl!oenig are all voices 4ithin the brief yet tempestuous surge of the
text0
1ith the lied/ the text counts and needs to be coloured and shaded
to echo the hills and
dales of the cameo of sudden contextless crisis or fleeting narrative0
Demi-teint emotions
of melancholy or regret are reCuired and suffering lies beneath the
surface0 Enli!e the
in-your-face pathos of the ?three tenor? :talian opera 4ail/ voice
volume is not imperative0
Hans Hotter 4as perhaps the most reno4ned 1otan of the century/
but in his lieder
rendition of Schubert and Brahms the huge instrument of his deep
baritone is harnessed
and controlled/ hushed and applied to its medium0 The result is
moving in the 4ay that
Fing Fong delicately lifting &ay 1ray up the Empire State Building is
movingG great
po4er hunching over a fragile treasure0
:n the post4ar years/ the lieder banner has chiefly been borne by
Dietrich
&ischer-Dies!au 7a great baritone90 #hec! it out in the Schumann
Lieder collection 4ith
#hristoph Eschenbach at the piano/ released last @uly/ 4hich
represents the apogee of
the lieder singer3s art--a 4hole palette of expressive beauty0 :n recent
years/ $laf Baer
has been seen as &ischer-Dies!au3s heir0 His magisterial recital of
Schubert lieder at the
1igmore Hall !ept the audience a4a!e to every nuance0 This month/
1igmore regulars
have been able to hear Barbara Hendric!s and 6athan Bert/ and can
yet catch a series
of master-classes by Brigitte &assbaender and an Anne Sofie von
$tter recital of
Schubert/ Hrieg/ Aon Foch/ Stenhammer and "eterson-Berger0 $ne
sobering point2
4hen you cast your eyes round the 1igmore Hall you don3t see many
young people0
Lieder is an almost exclusively Hermanic art--popular culture is still
not ready to forgive
the Herman language0
A recent experiment at the Lyric/ Hammersmith/ sa4 artyn Hill
rendering Schubert3s
1interreise cycle amid the decor of a #hristian Boltans!i installation0
The mise en scIne
of the 4inter Bourney is an attempt to dramatise the inner struggle of
the cycle and to bring
into focus the vivid imagery of 4hat Schubert referred to as his
?garland of gruesome
songs?0 A traveller is 4andering along a 4inter road going no4here in
particular0 Shards
of memory spar! in his head0 The usual stuff2 the girl he left behindG
his solitudeG the lime
tree under 4hich he once satG the hurdy-gurdy man 4ho plays
snatches of a song that
might spell salvation0 A 4orld of reverie 4ith the brief flic!er of
perhaps illusory stars0 Aery
much an inner 4orld 4hich the mar!eting machine that no4 runs the
promotion of the
classical repertoire seems to have difficulty finding a place for0
The HillJBoltans!i production of the 1interreise 7above9 moves
tangentially across the
outlines of the text in a number of stirring images li!e so many
shattered snapshots in a
4inter 4asteland0 A musical-box dancing girl and t4o heavy male
characters enact
fragments in the ritual of departure and loss2 a struggle 4ith
suitcasesG moments 4ith a
ropeG heaving the dead 4eight of a body through trapdoors0 The
universe is innocent and
menacing li!e a nursery rhyme0 Across it all runs a proBector sho4ing
a blac!-and-4hite
Bourney as seen from a train0 The lighting is !ey0 A constellation of
lightbulbs casts a
spoo!y illumination on the proceedings0
The production 4as--than! Hod--a demure attempt to imbue the
cycle 4ith a semblance
of the drama present in the text 4ithout defacing the basically
introverted nature of the
cycle0 But the operation is delicate0 "ush the performance to4ards
representation and
the nature of the art is butchered0 $bliCueness is all0 :n the same 4ay
that a comic so
often comes out better in stand-up than in lavish comedy s!etches/
the 4orld comes out
of the mouth of the lieder singer/ it is not cobbled together on stage0
The tendency to
push to4ards spectacle is tempting0 Schubert3s tunes are simple
4onders that 4ould
bring the house do4n in the 1est End if spruced up 4ith a glit>y
orchestra0
Boos from some in the audience aimed at the figurines of dancer and
men implied
dissatisfaction 4ith the disBointed nature of the imagery0 Still/ this 4as
one production that
respected the ghost-li!e rootlessness of the cycle0 The Holiday on
:ce version of the
1interreise has yet to come0 : reserve my boos for that0
Added material0
?The 6e4 #lassical Spectacular?/ Royal Albert Hall/ ,K-5* arch0
Brigitte &assbaender/
asterclass/ 1igmore Hall/ ,,-,< archG Anne Sofievon $tter/ **
April0 Dietrich
&ischer-Dies!au/ #hristoph Eschenbach/ ?Schumann Lieder?2 Ref no
<<;88.-,
Deutsche Hrammophon0

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E#$ 1ilsonSelect"lus results for2 3!42 classical and
!42 singer30 Record *, of *5