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guardian.co.uk, Monday 14 April 2003 |
Erica Jeal |
Recital, Wigmore Hall, London,
11 April 2003,
Schumann, Liszt, Richard Strauss
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Jonas Kaufmann
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Hopes are high for young German tenor Jonas
Kaufmann. He made quite a splash in recital at the Edinburgh festival, and
he is already high on the roster at Zurich Opera, one of Europe's best
houses. But on the strength of this performance - one that sharply divided
the audience - it's in that latter, operatic direction that his voice is
headed. In a programme including some of the cornerstones of the lieder
repertoire, he rarely sounded at ease. Indeed, during the Schumann that
formed the first half of his programme (four of the Op 35 Kernerlieder, and
the song cycle Dichterliebe), Kaufmann often gave the impression he would be
more comfortable singing Puccini in a hall 10 times this size.
It's not that singers with hefty voices can't perform this repertoire - just
that they'd need to have more vocal control than Kaufmann seems currently to
command. His dark, baritonal timbre didn't open out easily on the high notes
unless he could sing them at full Italianate blast. This meant that songs
such as Ich grolle nicht, in which the highest notes coincide with the
moment of greatest passion, suited him well, but in more restrained numbers
his voice could sound effortfully produced, even cumbersome, leaving little
room for the nuances of Schumann. And Helmut Deutsch's accompaniment, though
sensitive, was reticent and not characterful enough to compensate.
Still, when Kaufmann did relax, his performing would suddenly take flight.
He fleetingly turned on the charm for Die Rose, Die Lilie, Die Taube. Then,
hands in pockets, he brought a swagger to Ein Jüngling liebt ein Mädchen. In
the final song of Dichterliebe, he found his voice and was sounding
authoritative.
With Liszt's Three Petrarch Sonnets, we finally heard this very
Mediterranean-sounding singer in Italian. But the problems were still there,
and transitions from loud to soft were rarely smooth. He seemed far happier
in the six Strauss songs that closed the programme; back in his native
language, and in command of the music's grander gestures, he was at his most
communicative: expansive in Heimliche Aufforderung, calm and controlled in
Traum durch die Dämmerung, gently mocking in Wozu noch, Mädchen. A trio of
encores, ending with Schumann's Mondnacht, brought his best singing of the
evening. |
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