Oxford Lieder Festival 2011

Phil Bloomfield October 27, 2011

Roderick Williams & Andrew West
27th October, Holywell Music Room

It was a privilege to witness the premiere of Charlotte Bray’s latest work, a song cycle based on Sonnets and Love Songs by Fernando Pessoa, a quirky Portuguese poet who thought he had multiple personalities and that he should try to write in English like Shakespeare. Her music was haunting and atmospheric, perfectly suited to his words, and was both lyrical and arresting within a few bars. The piece will repay repeated listening, so I look forward to hearing it again on her website. She was understandably nervous during the performance, but she relaxed in the deserved warm applause and foot-stamping at the end. It is an admirable move by Oxford Lieder to support such talented young composers, and they were repaid handsomely for their courage last night.

Baritone Roderick Williams sang Charlotte Bray’s splendid work at the beginning of the second half of a totally delightful concert. He had given us enchanting songs by Gabriel Fauré, John Ireland, and Henri Duparc and a rarely heard song-cycle by Ralph Vaughan Williams in the first half. The singing and playing were all of a terrifically high standard, as we have come to expect from him and his redoubtable pianist, Andrew West, but the first Ireland piece, Santa Chiara, set to a poem by Arthur Symons, was particularly moving and memorable. Roderick Williams simply has a wonderful voice and gives each performance with such interpretation and feeling that it’s a warm blanket experience every time.

Well, we came for the Bray and stayed for the Elgar. The final section of the second half was devoted to the fantastic Sea Pictures by Edward Elgar. These are typical works of the master, lots of catchy tunes, harmonic skills and stirring sentiments. We should have had the Union Jacks out: not so much Last Night at the Proms, as Third Last Night at the Lieder. The Sea Pictures cycle contains five songs, based on poems by five different poets, including a charming little one by his wife, Alice, called In Haven (Capri), and my favourite, Where Corals Lie, by Richard Garnett.

Roderick Williams topped off the recital with a sad little love song as his encore. It was a perfect musical vignette for a perfect evening.

Jane Shields October 26, 2011

Master Course Participants' Concert
Wed 26th October, Holywell Music Room

The 2011 Oxford Lieder Master Course Participants' Concert comprised nine separate pianist/singer duets. The overall standard of performance was absolutely amazing; it really was a fantastic evening of music.

The first duo, Lucja Szablewska (soprano) and Julia Samojlo (piano) performed two French pieces from Gabriel Fauré. The first, Clair de lune, contained some soaring notes from Szablewska complimented by the skilful accompaniment by Samojlo.

Secondly we heard another female duo: Faustine de Mones (soprano) and Soojeong Joo (piano), who performed some haunting pieces by Claude Debussy. De Mones' diction and clarity was excellent, as was the piano accompaniment from Joo.

Performance three was given by Robert Elibay-Hartog (baritone) and Dante Lorenzo Dilanni (piano), with some varied musical pieces from Ravel, Schubert and Schumann. The baritone was both smooth and assured throughout the pieces and the pianist accompanied him well. We then heard Cathy Bell (mezzo-soprano) and SeHo Lee (piano) performing two pieces from Mahler. These were perhaps some of my favourite performances of the evening due to Bell’s expressive voice and the rhythm of the piano accompaniment.

The last performance before the interval was from Silvia Celadin (soprano) and Antonio Tessoni (piano) with pieces from Greig and Rossini. These pieces were sung confidently and passionately by Celadin, and accompanied expertly by Tessoni.

After the interval we heard Anthony Birnie (baritone) and Ana Luisa Monteiro (piano) performing three varied pieces from Tchaikovsky, Schubert and Strauss. Birnie was powerful throughout the performances and Monteiro provided an excellent accompaniment.

We then heard Nana Bugge Rasmussen (soprano) and Frederik Malmqvist (piano) perform a piece from Brahms and a piece from Strauss. The pieces were performed with strength and sincerity from Rasmussen and a confident accompaniment from Malmqvist.

The eighth performance was from Magdalena Kozyra (soprano) and Andrea Kmecova (piano) with pieces from Strauss and Faure. I found “Die Nacht” from Strauss particularly haunting with a melancholic melody from both Kozyra and the piano.

Lastly we heard Sarah Ogden (soprano) and Ewan Gilford (piano) perform pieces from Britten, Debussy and Kilpinen. The last song of the evening was short but immensely powerful, allowing Ogden to demonstrate how confident and clear her voice was. Gilford provided an excellent accompaniment.

Overall the evening was very enjoyable, both due to the extremely high standard of musical talent and the varied performances from some different classical music styles and composers.

Phil Bloomfield October 25, 2011

Barbirolli Quartet; James Gilchrist; and Anna Tilbrook
25th October 2011, Holywell Music Room

Brilliant! What a wonderful concert this was, from first to last notes, and such an interesting and entertaining programme. There was an enthusiastic welcome for James Gilchrist from his many fans in the comfortably full audience. We came to be charmed and he did not let us down, right from the start, as he launched into Gabriel Fauré’s L'Horizon chimérique, Op. 118, which was seven minutes of heaven. He was accompanied by his regular partner, the animated Anna Tilbrook. She is an outstanding accompanist, subtle and sensitive, the ideal complement to James Gilchrist. It’s little wonder that he enjoys working with her so much.

Then the String Quartet No. 1 in D major, Op. 25 by Benjamin Britten was played with real flair and understanding by the exceptional Barbirolli Quartet. They really are an amazing bunch of young musicians, bringing to the piece bags of energy, control and flair, and managing the sombre passages with real depth. The andante calmo was particularly special. It’s Britten’s first string quartet, not bad for a beginner, and it’s wearing well for its seventy years.

After the interval James Gilchrist’s next contribution to this delightful evening was Charlotte Bray’s Verre de Venise, nine easy pieces set to Rainer Maria Rilke’s charming poems. She’s a terrific young composer with lots of interesting ideas; you can appreciate the breadth of her work on her website. She was with us last night and was deservedly applauded very warmly for this thought-provoking song cycle. I’m looking forward to her new work, to be premiered at Oxford Lieder on Thursday evening.

James Gilchrist then finished the concert with the très bonne La bonne Chanson, Op. 61, also by Fauré, accompanied by the string quartet, Anna Tilbrook and Ben Griffiths on double bass, all jammed onto the small Holywell platform. This final section of the concert was another 22 minutes of heaven. It’s such a joy to listen to James as he’s just a great interpreter of song, giving each element of the work a special treatment and communicating the emotional content particularly well. I would have gladly listened to it all again.

Phil Bloomfield October 23, 2011

Lunchtime Recital by Ida Falk Winland, Håkan Vramsmo & Matti Hirvonen
22nd October 2011, Holywell Music Room

Mercifully transferred to the Holywell at the last moment due to a piano malfunction, this delightful recital was the second concert in the Swedish Weekend by outstanding soprano, Ida Falk Winland. She alternated in the programme with Håkan Vramsmo the Swedish baritone, who was making his second appearance at the Oxford Lieder. Both soloists were sympathetically accompanied throughout by pianist Matti Hirvonen.

As you might expect, we were treated to a programme of largely Swedish music set to Swedish texts, which turned out to be mostly love poems. Ida Falk Winland started with "The Listening Maria" by Almqvist, a quiet and thoughtful piece, and finished her first set with Rangstrom’s more recent and more amusing song about a girl impatiently wishing for her lover, "The Girl beneath the New Moon". The audience was torn between concentrating on the singing and trying to understand the songs by reading the translation booklet. Perhaps Lieder might run to surtitles next year?

Then Håkan Vramsmo stepped up to take the first of his turns. He has a fabulous baritone voice, well-suited to the intimacy of lieder, so it is no surprise to learn that he has won many prizes in lieder competitions. He sang with excellent tone and control, giving powerful and sensitive interpretations of the music. He was warmly appreciated by the audience, which included the Swedish Ambassador.

The music continued, with alternating soloists performing through a short but delightful concert. Towards the end, the Swedish repertoire gave way to items by Poulenc and Strauss, but the same high standard prevailed. I was particularly impressed by Ida Falk Winland’s engaging interpretation of Poulenc’s settings of three of Louise Lalanne’s poems, and Håkan Vramsmo’s rendition of Schumann’s "Belsatzar", with words by Heinrich Heine. This was spine-tingling, and will remain in my memory for a long time.

A wonderful pre-lunch recital, with three very good performers, although I did think that they missed a trick: surely there are some charming Swedish duets for soprano and baritone that they could have included?

Phil Bloomfield October 23, 2011

Aurora Orchestra, Ida Falk Winland & Njabulo Madlala
21 October 2011, University Church of St Mary the Virgin

It is amazing to think that this is the tenth year of the Oxford Lieder Festival, that brilliant celebration of wonderful music. This concert was the first in the Festival’s Swedish Weekend, a major celebration of Swedish music and musicians, and also its very first orchestral lieder. It featured the award-winning Aurora Chamber Orchestra, which performed the chamber version of two of Gustav Mahler’s great works with baritone Njabulo Madlala, the fabulous South African winner of the 2010 Kathleen Ferrier Awards, and the stunning soprano Ida Falk Winland, one of Sweden’s brightest young stars.

Following an illuminating pre-concert talk by Martin Ennis, the Orchestra performed "Crimson Skies", a new work commissioned by the Aurora from the Swedish composer Tobias Broström. This work attempts to recreate the ‘vivid dynamism’ of the Aurora Borealis, the natural phenomenon which is difficult to model in any medium. "Crimson Skies" is full of musical ideas, and the evolving harmonies are hypnotic. I enjoyed it a lot, although apart from the Swedish connection, I could not see how it fitted with the rest of the programme.

Still in the first half, we were then treated to a wonderful performance of Mahler’s "Lieder Eines Fahrenden Gesellen", beautiful music put to four poems written by Mahler himself. Largely about his problematic relationship with an opera singer, these songs have a lot of grief and not much joy. Njabulo Madlala sang them all with great feeling, seeming at one with the music. At the end there was stunned silence and then rapturous applause from the enthusiastic audience.

That first half was a difficult act to follow, but the Aurora gave as good a Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 as I have heard. It was a joy to have it played with such confidence, and I could see why Nicholas Collon is establishing such a good reputation as a conductor. The Aurora is full of gifted musicians, who were able to show off their considerable skills as the themes moved round the sections. As we had in the first half lieder, the childish joy of some sections contrasted markedly with others that were macabre. No wonder Mahler was a patient of Freud.

The fourth movement, "This Heavenly Life", was sung by Ida Falk Winland, closely following the instructions from Mahler that she should sing ‘with childlike, cheerful expression’. The song is all about meeting up with some saints in Heaven, a place where wine is free and there’s plenty of good asparagus. Nonsense, but nonetheless beautifully sung by a talented musician. She rounded off an exceptional concert, and with the other performers gave the Swedish Weekend at Oxford Lieder a tremendous start.

Jane Shields October 19, 2011

Liszt songs: Dorottya Lang & Julius Drake
Wed 19 October 2011, Holywell Music Room

One of the most important things about music is its inherent subjectivity; one person’s favourite song can be another’s massive headache. It is difficult, in some respects, to review music concerts because although something may not be to my personal taste, I wouldn’t want to dissuade you from seeing it as you might enjoy it. Tonight was such a performance; I thought that Dorottya Lang, the mezzo-soprano, was amazing. She is really an incredibly gifted singer, demonstrating emotion and immense power throughout the performances. Equally I am sure that Julius Drake is an excellent pianist. However, I didn’t love Liszt.

Honestly, throughout the pieces composed by Liszt in the first half of the performance, I found that it was almost like listening to two different tunes; the soprano and the pianist’s pieces did not mesh together well in my admittedly not especially educated ear. I did however like the lyrics to the songs in the programme and found some particularly beautiful; I enjoyed reading them as though I were reading some poetry. As I said, Lang was brilliant, and it was genuinely lovely to listen to her.

The second half of the performance was more enjoyable - the pieces by Strauss were undoubtedly my favourite; the piano then seemed to be playing the same tune as the soprano was singing and I really enjoyed these pieces. Had the evening been entirely of Strauss then I would have preferred it.

Unfortunately, there were perhaps too many breaks in the performance as there were pauses (for no specified reason) which I did find slightly excessive. But whatever my personal feeling for pauses or composers, I recognised that the performers' technique was consistently excellent. Lang and Drake are both very talented. Lang particularly has a powerful emotive passionate voice which rose up into the auditorium and charmed the audience.

As an aside, the paintings currently on show in Holywell Music Room are abstract visions reminiscent of the sea; I thought they were lovely. Altogether an interesting evening.

David Glass October 17, 2011

Songs by Gustav Mahler
Holywell Music Room, Mon October 17th 2011
Wolfgang Holzmair - baritone; and Joseph Middleton - piano

There's always something, isn't there? The planned pianist went down with a bad case of food poisoning so Roger Vignoles was invited to replace him at very short notice, performing the same day as he played a lunchtime recital in London's Wigmore Hall. Still, the venue had a pianist, and baritone Wolfgang Holzmair was there, so what could go wrong?

Well, the printers they were using could decide to lock up and go home without delivering the programmes, that's what. Displaying unprecedented commitment to paper handouts, the festival organisers went to a leading office supplies retailer then spent an hour printing out programmes on stapled A4 paper, so no-one would go without.

This seemed charmingly excessive at first, but the translated texts helped me get the most of out of this collection of Mahler's songs - though I sometimes got too lost in the performance to keep track, owing to Holzmair's dramatic performance and Vignoles' entrancing accompaniment.

The baritone had a beautifully clear sound across all his range and a complete dedication to the emotion of the lyrics he sang, with plaintive hand gestures and earnest facial expressions. He performed the drama of the songs with his actions as much as his voice, and was quite unabashed in doing so, looking out at the audience with a rare kind of exposed anguish, or moon-eyed wonder, or whatever else was required.

Several of the songs explored dark themes; heartbreak, death, war and execution, and one cycle concerned a damaged lover who implores the happy birds to stop their singing before quietly dying of misery under a lime tree. On the paper translations, these were amusingly O.T.T. - but the sheer commitment and powerful delivery of our singer convinced.

The second half was lighter and more upbeat, with moments of power of a softer kind, of still and sonorous yearning. The piano accompaniment was sylphlike and unpredictable, rippling from key to key of its own free will, while word-painting and sound effects added the texture of birdsong, marching drums and buzzing bees. If I hadn't have been told about the eleventh-hour change I'd never have realised Vignoles was brought in at the last minute.

Much applause followed the end of the programme, leading to two passionate encores and the audience leaving very happy. This was far better than I had hoped and one of the best classical performances I've seen in Oxford. There's much more of the Oxford Lieder Festival to come over the next two weeks and I'm certainly tempted to try another.

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