Oxford-Lieder Festival 2015: Singing Words, Poets and their Songs, Holywell Music Room, Jacqueline du Pré Music Building, 16 – 31 October 2015.
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Every year I introduce my review of the Oxford-Lieder Festival by hyphenating Oxford and Lieder to stress the fact that it is a Festival organised by Oxford Lieder and not a Festival of Lieder, the name for German art-songs. It is particularly important to make that distinction this year since the theme of the Festival is of songs setting the poems of poets in all languages. The Festival had two main themes. In addition to days devoted to individual poets, there was also a special emphasis on the songs of Fauré. In addition there was a study day devoted to Hector Berlioz. A feature throughout the Festival were lunchtime recitals ‘Lunch with Fauré and Schubert. If these set out to demonstrate that Fauré was at least as great an interpreter of poets and their verse as Schubert they succeeded admirably. This gave an emphasis on French melodies rather than German Lied
A busy opening day contained a symposium on Words into Music a masterclass for amateur singers, the schools project concert and culminating in the opening recital, unfortunately in the Sheldonian,. I had mixed reports: one said I should have made an exception to my rule not to go there; another that it did not compensate for the discomfort. This was a conventional programme of Schubert, Brahms and Wolf given by Sarah Connolly and Graham Johnson. The serious business started the next day in the Jacqueline du Pré Music Building with a weekend devoted to Gabriel Fauré: a life through song presented by Graham Johnson.
I have often complained that Oxford Lieder did not give sufficient attention to the songs of Fauré, always being contradicted by drawing attention to concerts including his music. I had not realised how right I was until I heard Johnson’s year by year account of the composer’s output. The first day covered the period 1861 -1891, from his first song Le Papillon et la Fleur , (Hugo 1861) composed at the age of sixteen; the second day covering 1891 to 1921 opened with La bonne Chanson (Verlaine 1892 – 4) followed by the remainder of his output containing some wonderful work almost completely unknown in the concert hall.
In a masterful, engrossing presentation Graham Johnson gave a detailed year by year account of the composer’s life and times, detailing the contemporary cultural scene, his relations to the poets who inspired his work and to the doings of other composers and also his personal life – his relationships with a continuous stream of extramarital liaisons of more or less intimacy, inspiring his music. The discourse was illustrated by quartets of singers, Sarah Fox (soprano) Anna Huntley (mezzo) Gyula Rab (tenor) and Victor Sicard (baritone) on the Saturday and Geraldine McGreevy, Huntley, John Mark Ainsley and Stephen Varcos on Sunday. Ann Huntley opened with a very fast run through of Le Papillon et la Fleur which may have been metronomically correct but could not stand comparison with the delicately nuanced performance by the young duo Sónia Grané (soprano) and Edwige Herschenroder, the outstanding memory of the 2011 Festival. Grané was sorely missed from the feast of 2015 though Herschenroder made a welcome appearance as the pianist in the Berlioz Study Day. The remainder of the first day was filled with familiar songs, for me personally very nostalgic for half a lifetime of Sunday mornings accompanying a mezzo work colleague. On the second day one beautiful mélodie followed another including extracts from the song cycles La bonne Chanson, La Chanson d’Éve, Le Jardin clos, Mirages and L’Horizon chimérique. A particular highlight among many was the duet from 1896 Pleurs d’Or to words by Albert Semain. Johnson explained the neglect of this output as due in part to the composer’s unique place in music, drawing little on his predecessor and mentor Saint-Saëns and influencing little his contemporaries and students Debussy, Duparc, Hahn and Ravel.
***
The Sunday evening saw the first of the recitals devoted to the settings of a single poet – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1794-1832). The singers were a formidable pair Katerina Karnéus and Stefan Loges, neither strangers to the Lieder Festival now both at the height of their powers; the pianist was Kynoch. It was rather disorienting to hear unfamiliar settings of familiar words. There were four groups of songs, from Erwin and Elmire, Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre, Faust and West-östlicher Divan. In the first group we heard three versions of Die Veilchen, an aria by Anna Amalia and lieder by Clara Schumann and Mozart. There was no doubt about the superiority of the last. In general the unfamiliar settings by Moussorgsky, Tchaikovsky, Busoni, Liszt and others were disappointing but a real discovery was Beethoven’s tumultuous Es war einmal ein König from Faust, way ahead of its time. Schubert, Schumann and Brahms stood out ahead of the rest.
The Wednesday of that week was devoted to Shakespeare, concluding with a recital Shakespeare in Music given Catherine Hopper, John Mark Ainsley with pianist James Baillieu. The programme consisted of well-known settings by English composers, Quilter, Gurney, Finzi and others alternating with others less well-known. The former are better known as songs than as in their original context. The songs in French or German translation were a fascinating lot –alternating Brahms and Richard Strauss in Ophelia songs, French settings by Berlioz and Saint-Saëns of La Morte d’Ophélie and a strange setting of three of Lady Macbeth’s speeches by Joseph Horovitz (b 1926). Three Songs for Ariel by Michael Tippett deserve to be better known.
The next day was devoted to Russian poets. The evening concert, settings of Tolstoy and Pushkin saw a most welcome return to the Festival of Joan Rodgers who always charms us with her performances of the Russian repertoire. She was joined by baritone Gary Griffiths equally at home in sung Russian (remarkable for a non Russian speaker). The first half was devoted to settings by Tchaikowski of poems by Tolstoy. Tolstoy was to Tchaikowsky what Goethe was to Schubert and Verlaine to Fauré. The second half of this concert consisted of Pushkin’s poems set by a series of composers from Glinka (1804-1857) to Shostakovich (1906-1957).
The Friday concert given by Wolfgang Holzmair and Imogen Cooper opened with a group of songs by Clara Schumann to words by Rollett, Heine and Geibel were delightful – in the style of Robert, lighter in tone but certainly with a voice of her own. There followed six monologues from Jedermann by Hugo von Hofmannsthal set by Frank Martin which recount the struggles of Everyman with his faith. With his God and with his worldly goods. Powerful words matched by equally powerful music for both voice and piano, powerfully performed The finale was a special emotional occasion – the last opportunity before his retirement - to hear in the UK this duo’s interpretation of Schumann’s twelve Kerner Lieder. Taken together this recital must rate as the most memorable occasion in a Festival packed with great moments. The two concluding songs Wer Machte dich so krank? and Alte Laute reduced the whole audience to tears. We were delighted to learn that Holzmair will return next year as Director of the Mastercourse.
***
The Berlioz study day, in collaboration with The Berlioz Society, opened with a talk by the doyen of Berlioz scholars David Cairns entitled Berlioz in context. His main aim was to demonstrate how the composer embedded the small scale construction of the song into many of his large scale works from L’Enfance du Christ and the Symphonie fantastique to the sailor’s song of homesickness into the last Act of Les Troyens.. Following lunch and a short recital of Berlioz’ songs, including three from Les Nuits d’Été and two from La Damnation de Faust, there was an extremely illuminating talk by Julian Rushton. In this he demonstrated through Berlioz the evolution of French song from the simple strophic romance to the more complex freer form of the mélodie adopted by Fauré, Debussy, Duparc and Ravel.
The very stimulating study day ended with a talk by Richard Wigmore entitled Berlioz’s (sic) Legacy. He discussed with examples how Berlioz influence had touched on the work of his contemporaries, Liszt and Wagner and successors from Mahler to Messaien.
The study day was followed by an evening performance of Berlioz’ songs given by Dorottya Láng and James Gilchrist with Julian Drake. This included the piano version of Les Nuits d’Été.
***
I attended four of the Lunch with Fauré and Schubert concerts. The first was that given by mezzo Stephanie Marshall, baritone Gareth Brynmor John with Gary Matthewman. Schubert came first with two groups of four songs sung by each in turn. There followed thirteen of the better-known songs of Fauré and the concert ended with the duet Pleurs d’Or, also heard the first weekend. Marshall combines a modest and calm stage presence with a most attractive delivery. John, a late substitute, also came over well in a delightful but undemanding programme.
In 2013 I wrote of the Stephan Loges, Michael Dussek duo: ‘Loges’ voice continues to grow in intensity and his interpretations in maturity so that today he can stand comparison with the world’s best, notable for his clarity of diction. With Dussek he formed a perfectly balanced duo’. The same can still be said today. The problem is that, unconstrained as it was here, the voice is too big for the Holywell Music Room. With Dussek using the full power of the full-size Steinway imported for the Festival, the main impression left by their concert was loudness. On the HMR scale there was nothing less than mezzo-forte throughout. Nevertheless there were some fine interpretations, both in French and German, Fauré represented by seven settings of Silvestre and two of Mendès.
Lucy Crowe had to cancel at short notice due to sickness. It was as if we had looked behind us at her appearance as Eurydice at the Royal Opera House. Her replacement, soprano Soraya Mafi with pianist Anna Tilbrook, reminded us that Lucy Crowe’s first appearance at the 2006 Lieder Festival, was also as a late replacement, interrupting her run as Sophie in Scottish Opera’s Rosenkavalier. Mafi is currently singing Johanna in Sweeney Todd on tour with Welsh National Opera, performing in Oxford the first week of November. She has a charming stage presence. Her programme contained only three Fauré – settings of Verlaine, Mandoline, En Sourdine, Green from De Venise – Debussy and Poulenc, as well as Schubert. She sang with great sensitivity in both languages with an occasional tendency to shrillness which for the most part she kept under control. But her Ave Maria and Du bist die Ruh were totally divine. A singer to watch out for. Tilbrook was as usual a perfect partner, showing how the monstrous Steinway can be kept under control.
The fourth Lunch with Fauré and Schubert concert I attended was in conjunction with the National Opera Studio. The performers were soprano Katherine Crompton, mezzo Hann-Liisa Kirchin with pianist Hannah Quinn. The artists betrayed their affiliation. This was not a recital by singer-pianist duos but rather piano-accompanied operatic performances. On these terms there was much to enjoy from two powerful voices in a programme alternating Fauré and Schubert, though the soprano’s French was somewhat suspect.
I rate the final score Fauré 8 Schubert 10. However, none of the Fauré singer – piano duos could match the memories of Sónia Grané and Edwige Herschenroder from earlier Festivals.
***
The Festival ended as it had begun with a conventional Lieder recital – given by Christoph Prégardien (tenor) with Roger Vignolles of Heine settings by Schubert and Schumann. The fortnight had been packed with activities from the Schools’ Project, Mastercourses for students and amateurs, chamber music, church music including Fauré’s Requiem, as well as programmes devoted to poets, their poetry and concerts of their songs. In this review I have only travelled on the surface.
A busy opening day contained a symposium on Words into Music a masterclass for amateur singers, the schools project concert and culminating in the opening recital, unfortunately in the Sheldonian,. I had mixed reports: one said I should have made an exception to my rule not to go there; another that it did not compensate for the discomfort. This was a conventional programme of Schubert, Brahms and Wolf given by Sarah Connolly and Graham Johnson. The serious business started the next day in the Jacqueline du Pré Music Building with a weekend devoted to Gabriel Fauré: a life through song presented by Graham Johnson.
I have often complained that Oxford Lieder did not give sufficient attention to the songs of Fauré, always being contradicted by drawing attention to concerts including his music. I had not realised how right I was until I heard Johnson’s year by year account of the composer’s output. The first day covered the period 1861 -1891, from his first song Le Papillon et la Fleur , (Hugo 1861) composed at the age of sixteen; the second day covering 1891 to 1921 opened with La bonne Chanson (Verlaine 1892 – 4) followed by the remainder of his output containing some wonderful work almost completely unknown in the concert hall.
In a masterful, engrossing presentation Graham Johnson gave a detailed year by year account of the composer’s life and times, detailing the contemporary cultural scene, his relations to the poets who inspired his work and to the doings of other composers and also his personal life – his relationships with a continuous stream of extramarital liaisons of more or less intimacy, inspiring his music. The discourse was illustrated by quartets of singers, Sarah Fox (soprano) Anna Huntley (mezzo) Gyula Rab (tenor) and Victor Sicard (baritone) on the Saturday and Geraldine McGreevy, Huntley, John Mark Ainsley and Stephen Varcos on Sunday. Ann Huntley opened with a very fast run through of Le Papillon et la Fleur which may have been metronomically correct but could not stand comparison with the delicately nuanced performance by the young duo Sónia Grané (soprano) and Edwige Herschenroder, the outstanding memory of the 2011 Festival. Grané was sorely missed from the feast of 2015 though Herschenroder made a welcome appearance as the pianist in the Berlioz Study Day. The remainder of the first day was filled with familiar songs, for me personally very nostalgic for half a lifetime of Sunday mornings accompanying a mezzo work colleague. On the second day one beautiful mélodie followed another including extracts from the song cycles La bonne Chanson, La Chanson d’Éve, Le Jardin clos, Mirages and L’Horizon chimérique. A particular highlight among many was the duet from 1896 Pleurs d’Or to words by Albert Semain. Johnson explained the neglect of this output as due in part to the composer’s unique place in music, drawing little on his predecessor and mentor Saint-Saëns and influencing little his contemporaries and students Debussy, Duparc, Hahn and Ravel.
***
The Sunday evening saw the first of the recitals devoted to the settings of a single poet – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1794-1832). The singers were a formidable pair Katerina Karnéus and Stefan Loges, neither strangers to the Lieder Festival now both at the height of their powers; the pianist was Kynoch. It was rather disorienting to hear unfamiliar settings of familiar words. There were four groups of songs, from Erwin and Elmire, Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre, Faust and West-östlicher Divan. In the first group we heard three versions of Die Veilchen, an aria by Anna Amalia and lieder by Clara Schumann and Mozart. There was no doubt about the superiority of the last. In general the unfamiliar settings by Moussorgsky, Tchaikovsky, Busoni, Liszt and others were disappointing but a real discovery was Beethoven’s tumultuous Es war einmal ein König from Faust, way ahead of its time. Schubert, Schumann and Brahms stood out ahead of the rest.
The Wednesday of that week was devoted to Shakespeare, concluding with a recital Shakespeare in Music given Catherine Hopper, John Mark Ainsley with pianist James Baillieu. The programme consisted of well-known settings by English composers, Quilter, Gurney, Finzi and others alternating with others less well-known. The former are better known as songs than as in their original context. The songs in French or German translation were a fascinating lot –alternating Brahms and Richard Strauss in Ophelia songs, French settings by Berlioz and Saint-Saëns of La Morte d’Ophélie and a strange setting of three of Lady Macbeth’s speeches by Joseph Horovitz (b 1926). Three Songs for Ariel by Michael Tippett deserve to be better known.
The next day was devoted to Russian poets. The evening concert, settings of Tolstoy and Pushkin saw a most welcome return to the Festival of Joan Rodgers who always charms us with her performances of the Russian repertoire. She was joined by baritone Gary Griffiths equally at home in sung Russian (remarkable for a non Russian speaker). The first half was devoted to settings by Tchaikowski of poems by Tolstoy. Tolstoy was to Tchaikowsky what Goethe was to Schubert and Verlaine to Fauré. The second half of this concert consisted of Pushkin’s poems set by a series of composers from Glinka (1804-1857) to Shostakovich (1906-1957).
The Friday concert given by Wolfgang Holzmair and Imogen Cooper opened with a group of songs by Clara Schumann to words by Rollett, Heine and Geibel were delightful – in the style of Robert, lighter in tone but certainly with a voice of her own. There followed six monologues from Jedermann by Hugo von Hofmannsthal set by Frank Martin which recount the struggles of Everyman with his faith. With his God and with his worldly goods. Powerful words matched by equally powerful music for both voice and piano, powerfully performed The finale was a special emotional occasion – the last opportunity before his retirement - to hear in the UK this duo’s interpretation of Schumann’s twelve Kerner Lieder. Taken together this recital must rate as the most memorable occasion in a Festival packed with great moments. The two concluding songs Wer Machte dich so krank? and Alte Laute reduced the whole audience to tears. We were delighted to learn that Holzmair will return next year as Director of the Mastercourse.
***
The Berlioz study day, in collaboration with The Berlioz Society, opened with a talk by the doyen of Berlioz scholars David Cairns entitled Berlioz in context. His main aim was to demonstrate how the composer embedded the small scale construction of the song into many of his large scale works from L’Enfance du Christ and the Symphonie fantastique to the sailor’s song of homesickness into the last Act of Les Troyens.. Following lunch and a short recital of Berlioz’ songs, including three from Les Nuits d’Été and two from La Damnation de Faust, there was an extremely illuminating talk by Julian Rushton. In this he demonstrated through Berlioz the evolution of French song from the simple strophic romance to the more complex freer form of the mélodie adopted by Fauré, Debussy, Duparc and Ravel.
The very stimulating study day ended with a talk by Richard Wigmore entitled Berlioz’s (sic) Legacy. He discussed with examples how Berlioz influence had touched on the work of his contemporaries, Liszt and Wagner and successors from Mahler to Messaien.
The study day was followed by an evening performance of Berlioz’ songs given by Dorottya Láng and James Gilchrist with Julian Drake. This included the piano version of Les Nuits d’Été.
***
I attended four of the Lunch with Fauré and Schubert concerts. The first was that given by mezzo Stephanie Marshall, baritone Gareth Brynmor John with Gary Matthewman. Schubert came first with two groups of four songs sung by each in turn. There followed thirteen of the better-known songs of Fauré and the concert ended with the duet Pleurs d’Or, also heard the first weekend. Marshall combines a modest and calm stage presence with a most attractive delivery. John, a late substitute, also came over well in a delightful but undemanding programme.
In 2013 I wrote of the Stephan Loges, Michael Dussek duo: ‘Loges’ voice continues to grow in intensity and his interpretations in maturity so that today he can stand comparison with the world’s best, notable for his clarity of diction. With Dussek he formed a perfectly balanced duo’. The same can still be said today. The problem is that, unconstrained as it was here, the voice is too big for the Holywell Music Room. With Dussek using the full power of the full-size Steinway imported for the Festival, the main impression left by their concert was loudness. On the HMR scale there was nothing less than mezzo-forte throughout. Nevertheless there were some fine interpretations, both in French and German, Fauré represented by seven settings of Silvestre and two of Mendès.
Lucy Crowe had to cancel at short notice due to sickness. It was as if we had looked behind us at her appearance as Eurydice at the Royal Opera House. Her replacement, soprano Soraya Mafi with pianist Anna Tilbrook, reminded us that Lucy Crowe’s first appearance at the 2006 Lieder Festival, was also as a late replacement, interrupting her run as Sophie in Scottish Opera’s Rosenkavalier. Mafi is currently singing Johanna in Sweeney Todd on tour with Welsh National Opera, performing in Oxford the first week of November. She has a charming stage presence. Her programme contained only three Fauré – settings of Verlaine, Mandoline, En Sourdine, Green from De Venise – Debussy and Poulenc, as well as Schubert. She sang with great sensitivity in both languages with an occasional tendency to shrillness which for the most part she kept under control. But her Ave Maria and Du bist die Ruh were totally divine. A singer to watch out for. Tilbrook was as usual a perfect partner, showing how the monstrous Steinway can be kept under control.
The fourth Lunch with Fauré and Schubert concert I attended was in conjunction with the National Opera Studio. The performers were soprano Katherine Crompton, mezzo Hann-Liisa Kirchin with pianist Hannah Quinn. The artists betrayed their affiliation. This was not a recital by singer-pianist duos but rather piano-accompanied operatic performances. On these terms there was much to enjoy from two powerful voices in a programme alternating Fauré and Schubert, though the soprano’s French was somewhat suspect.
I rate the final score Fauré 8 Schubert 10. However, none of the Fauré singer – piano duos could match the memories of Sónia Grané and Edwige Herschenroder from earlier Festivals.
***
The Festival ended as it had begun with a conventional Lieder recital – given by Christoph Prégardien (tenor) with Roger Vignolles of Heine settings by Schubert and Schumann. The fortnight had been packed with activities from the Schools’ Project, Mastercourses for students and amateurs, chamber music, church music including Fauré’s Requiem, as well as programmes devoted to poets, their poetry and concerts of their songs. In this review I have only travelled on the surface.