Winterreise

As the last noise of the final piano chord finally disappeared in the hushed atmosphere of the Holywell Music Room, I was left in a state of wondered contemplation as silence reigned. Then the audience erupted into applause and the long and sorrowful journey of Schubert’s Winterreise had drawn to a close. Mark Padmore had delivered a masterful rendition of this dark work, full of deep passions, despair, longing and love. He had been superbly accompanied by the very accomplished Julius Drake, who is distinguished not only by his masterful playing but also by his deep intellectual understanding of Lieder. After they had finished, they embraced, both of them showing signs of sweat as if they really had just returned from a long and arduous journey. Julius’s top shirt button had been undone, so that his tie did not quite reach the top of his shirt, and provided a further sign of having survived a Reise. Together, Padmore and Drake formed a redoubtable duo, and their joint journey through this musical and poetic song-cycle transported the packed audience into a German world of flowing rivulets, wooded terrain and rocky crevices, haunted by love and death. Many of the members of the audience were no doubt transported by the power of this interpretation into their own solitary worlds, the landscape of which were perhaps marked-out by personal memories, maybe sorrowful ones; I myself was moved to remember the Germany of this poetry, a landscape populated by trees and streams and rocks, and German ladies. Lieder, when properly sung, should have this evocative and transportative quality, and a live performance, if good, as this one was, can always surpass a CD recording in this respect.

Schubert’s Winterresie has a long and impressive recording history, of which there has been two extremes of interpretation: the singer as detached observer, and the singer as impassioned dramatist. Mark Padmore’s rendition was as about as impassioned and dramatic as any interpretation could be. I have no criticisms of his musical interpretation: his dexterous vocal production gave him a wide range of emotions from the extremes of heated rage to downcast sorrow, the expression of which may be required within the scope of a single song or even a verse of a song, and which he supplied beautifully and at times, majestically. I did have some minor quibbles with his pronunciation. Diction and the use of the sound of the words is critical to Lieder, because Lieder encapsulate the happy marriage of poetry and music. Overall, Padmore’s diction was amply clear and often faultless, and he married the poetry to the music superbly. However, on occasion his over-English production of German guttural sounds (which are actually often only guttural when spoken with a bad English accent) sometimes prevented some of the quieter, reflective moments from taking a true hold. This may have been lost on some of the non-German speaking members of the audience, but I feel it is criticism which must be made, because of the integrity of the music and poetry, which the singer must preserve. The piano playing was majestic, and to my ears, faultless.