Customer Reviews

Schumann: Dichterliebe / Brahms:Lieder

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

British baritone Simon Keenlyside hasn't lacked for first-rate recording opportunities, including Don Giovanni under Abbado on DG, and his portrayal of Billy Budd in Britten's opera leads a crowded pack. But this eminently musical singer hasn't become a star in the U.S. greatly as he's admired in Europe. Sony has given Keenlyside a contract, but I felt lukewarm about his duet album of Viennese operetta with his frequent partner, Angelika Kirchschlager. Will an audience flock to a lieder album that features a raft of somewhat offbeat Brahms songs and the evergreen Dichterliebe of Schumann? Certainly the musical values are strong. Accompanist Malcolm Martineau can hardly be bettered on the current scene, and although the recorded piano sound is too distant and echoey, the colorations in the singer's voice are well captured.

I thoroughly enjoyed everything here. It's rare to hear a male singer who is willing to sound so sensitive, even to the point of tremulousness. Keenlyside wants to touch our hearts, and although German lieder isn't a natural vehicle for that purpose, so far as general listeners are concerned, he's very successful. The Brahms songs bear no trace of over-earnestness; they often sound quite fresh. Thomas Hampson has a more glamorous voice but sounds more contrived in this material. Keenlyside has no interest in coming across as a star. Such unaffected sincerity, combined with passionate delivery, makes his Dichterliebe better than Hampson's, or almost anyone else's in the recent past.

As he's matured, Keenlyside's baritone, although not immediately recognizable, has become flexible and secure -- he can make it do anything he wants, as wtiness the fearless top notes of "Ich grolle nicht." His German is convincing, and he's attentive to the texts. In all, I'd favorably match him with another impeccable British singer, Thomas Allen, and like Allen, Keenlyside fills many roles in opera and the recital stage. A singer with a modest profile scores a quiet triumph here.

Schumann: Dichterliebe,Brahms:Lieder
Mr. Keenlyside is perhaps best known for his outstanding operatic portrayals in Hamlet, Billy Budd, Don Giovanni, Marriage of Figaro, Pelleas, etc., but his voice really shines in the Lieder recital. Here he spreads his honeyed legato baritone over some too seldom heard Brahms songs, as well as the Schumann Dichterliebe. While the overall sonic picture may not be quite as favorable as in his live recital performances (as reflected to perfection in his Wigmore Hall CD), here is a masterful rendition of some high points in the German song repertoire, with the Dichterliebe delivered in one unbroken dramatic arc.

I'm hard-pressed to decide which performance of Schumann's Dichterliebe song cycle I like better between this one with baritone Simon Keenlyside and pianist Malcolm Martineau and the recent one by Canadian baritone Gerald Finley with Julius Drake at the piano. There's a certain raw emotional honesty in Finley's singing, although his German diction to my ears doesn't have quite the subtlety of Keenlyside's. But I'll leave that judgment to a native German. For sheer beauty of voice and sensitivity of interpretation, Mr. Keenlyside can't be beat. The pianists Martineau and Drake are among the very best and offer masterful interpretation of these lieder. They remind me of their predecessor, the great accompanist Gerald Moore in his prime. There's something about Keenlyside, the artist, who just moves me more than any other baritone. It's his intelligence, his emotional commitment to the meaning of the text, his sensitivity to nuance and mood. I have enjoyed Keenlyside's recordings of Strauss and Schubert lieder but what a pleasure to hear his voice in this new recording which catches his voice in full maturity. There is a bit more power to it now and his singing career is in its absolute prime. The recording has spirit and vigor. The tempi are all alive and moving without feeling rushed. By contrast, the hyperion recording of Dichterliebe (from ten years ago) with baritone Christopher Maltman and pianist Graham Johnson sounds overly careful, anemic, and somewhat lethargic. Keenlyside sounds like the poet of Heine's texts: impulsive, passionate, fully alive and very moving.

Simon Keenlyside is a lieder singer of the first order. His voice is beautiful - no, that isn't a strong enough adjective. The manner in which he produces his warmly hued baritone sound is a technically perfect as anyone singing in this range today. His ability to communicate the poetry of he works he chooses to sing is uncanny. This British baritone's German is impeccable. And nowhere is that more exposed than in the Schumann 'Dichterliebe'. These songs can become sanguine in the wrong performers repertoire, but Keenlyside immerses himself in the lyrics and we understand and believe every phrase he utters. But that is only half of the journey, the other half is the dignity with which he approaches Schumann's musical lines. The big passages are confident, the delicate passages are inordinately sensitive in the manner in which he colors the tone, the phrasing, the angst.

The second part of his recital is a fine collection of Brahms lieder, a selection that demands more from the singer because the range of songs is more broad and not connected the way the Schumann cycle is. But here Keenlyside is if anything even more adept. His singing is always elegant and appropriate to the lyric. But Brahms is notoriously difficult to sing convincingly: many artists make these songs sound stodgy, inflated. Not Keenlyside. He is ever on the side of communication and breathing the beauty of Brahms' genius into the music. This is an outstanding recording, and one that is as fine an introduction to this great artist as any he has made. He deserves attention, especially now that we know he is touring the US this month. Don't miss the opportunity to experience Simon Keenlyside: his handsome stage presence only adds to his quality musicianship. Grady Harp, October 11

Keenlyside brings a type of character that many overlook. The nuances of Brahms lieder are well taken care of here by both singer and pianist. This is a recording that's made for the music's sake and not poorly put together. Keenlyside's tone in cooperation with the piano balance very well and portray the meaning of the lyrics.

The reason I did not give it a 5? Keenlyside seems to lose control of his voice in a few spots, trying to sustain at too high a dynamic or slightly off centered pitch in select spots. The technical aspect of the recording wasn't the best. Microphones could have been more strategically placed. Overall, a very good buy. Highly recommended and brings a new found enthusiasm for Brahms lieder for me.