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In the five years since he last sang lieder in London, the tenor Jonas
Kaufmann has become an international star, gaining a reputation as the
Wagnerian of the moment, so his appearance at the Wigmore Hall was eagerly
awaited, not just because he has a wondrous voice but because a recital is
the supreme test of any artist; stripped of operatic trappings, a singer is
totally exposed.
But exposed or not, you still have a job to do:
tell a story. And what a story-teller we had in Kaufmann. He's 40, yet still
managed to convince us he was the naive apprentice of Schubert's song-cycle,
Die schöne Müllerin, his bright optimism darkening to dissolution and
despair as his rejection by his boss's daughter propels him towards an
absurdly romantic death.
Kaufmann has an astonishing voice: rich
and round as a baritone's in the lower register, yet able to fly with ease
to sweet, mellifluous, heart-stopping heights, as in the closing lines of
both "Am Feierabend" and "Der Neugierige". That same ability to sustain the
smallest thread of pianissimo cast a chilling spell when, in "Die liebe
Farbe", he shrouded his voice to sing of death while the superb Helmut
Deutsch kept the millwheel turning in his beautifully sensitive,
many-coloured accompaniment. A magical partnership.
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