|
<< -- 3 -- John Bell Young STIRRING OPTIMISM
Doubtless the fresh, but equally probing perspective of the artists on
this occasion serves to illuminate previously unexplored aspects of
these works. Indeed, that there is so much to find in it speaks volumes
for its artistic value. David Blackburn's focused, expressively
concentrated tenor, for example, yields wholly different results from
that of the refined urbanity of the silver-throated John Aler in the
first outing. Indeed, Mr Blackburn exploits the anxieties, wariness and
even the sheer terror that underlies the texts to which the music is
set, and to a large extent, the music itself. Witness his chilling
account of Beschwörung
[listen -- CD1 track 14, 3:21-4:19],
set to an ominous text by Pushkin, and his
pulsating navigation of the gentle Ständchen. While his instrument is
somewhat rougher, and its timbre jarring, Mr Blackburn is a singer in
the interpretive mould of Fischer-Dieskau and Schwarzkopf; indeed, he
avails himself of minute affective inflections to intensify a syllable,
color a word or deliver a single vowel in the service of meaningful
conveyance.
Mr Hebel, though not a virtuoso given to the technical sophistication
of his predecessor Nick Eanet, is an exceptionally perceptive musician,
whose thoughtful articulation and unerring grasp of Nietzsche's
migrating tonalities is matched note for note by his accompanist, Thomas Coote
[listen -- CD2 track 1, 2:30-3:43].
Together they render
Eine Sylvesternacht's wayward teleology at once intelligible and
convincing.
Perhaps most remarkable is the playing of pianist Manolis Papasifakis,
who brings to these wholly Teutonic compositions something of a French
sensibility. In his accompaniments to Mr Blackburn, as well as readings
of two solo works (Das Zerbrochene Ringlein
[listen -- CD1 track 10, 0:00-1:02],
which was originally
composed as a melodrama with speaker, absent here; and Nietzsche's own
transcription of his song Da Geht Ein Bach
[listen -- CD1 track 1, 0:00-1:16]),
Mr Papasifakis' elegant,
deftly pedaled and often ethereal approach defies their implicit
gravity, and it works. Likewise, Thomas Coote's savvy account of the
melancholy Das Fragment an Sich is a most eloquent evocation of its
quizzical character and immanent wanderlust, while his versatile
flexibility as Mr Hebel's collaborator reveals an authoritative command
of challenging material.
Continue >>
Copyright © 2 November 2003
John Bell Young, Tampa, Florida, USA
|
