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The Scotsman, 18. August 2003 |
James Allen |
Schubert: Die Winterreise, Edinburgh, 16 August 2003
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Jonas Kaufmann and Helmut Deutsch
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Queen's Hall |
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WHETHER or not Schubert’s Winterreise is the
greatest song cycle, it is certainly the one by which many a tenor is
judged. Singers return again and again to this work in their careers and
tenor Jonas Kaufmann will doubtless wish to probe it more deeply and build
upon the distinctive imprint he put on the work in this recital.
Kaufmann’s voice has grown in the last year. Rich, baritonal depths have
developed and his middle range is more nuanced. Though it occasionally
needed more support, his Romantic, rather than expressionistic,
interpretation of the work was, overall, technically well catered for.
There was a sense, in Kaufmann’s performance, of oscillating more and more
widely around an unbearable melancholic gloom before collapsing with
exhaustion, rather than progressing linearly through the work. It was as if
bad thoughts kept bouncing back at him, hindering forward progress and
gnawing away at his soul.
I liked the way he reined in his voice to suggest the wintriness of the
heart and pianist Helmut Deutsch’s handling of nature and the elements in
the accompaniment. There is some way to go before Kaufmann inhabits this
cycle more fully, but it will be interesting to hear that happen. |
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