Despite his estimable reputation and his admirable choice of repertoire, I've always been left just a little cold by Pierre-Laurent Aimard. The pianist has an unmatched facility for technical, specifically mensural, precision, as displayed in canonical (often debut) recordings of Ligeti and Messiaen. But I have found evidence of sweetness or poetic contrast in his style to be lacking. Matthias Goerne, meanwhile, has disappointed me as much as he has pleased, showing for instance imperious form in Mahler on the one hand, but stumbling, muddled readings of Larcher (see link at bottom), on the other.
Schubert is however close to home for Goerne, if not Aimard, and as such I came to this concert curious, and not a little expectant. Augmentation of the programme was thankfully foregone in favour of a concentrated 70 minutes of music. The performers were thus allowed to give their all to Schubert's captivating musical staging of Müller's enigmatic cycle of poems that detail the failed courtship of a beautiful maid of a mill by a travelling journeyman miller.
Questions of verisimilitude often hang over Die schöne Müllerin. Is it all the fabric of a dream, a fantasy on a tragic love (as suggested by the final poem's references to sleep)? Or does it seek to portray, on the other hand, a true (in a fictive context) movement from life to death? Through his music Schubert preserves some of the ambiguity, whilst at the same time compelling us to be moved, drawing us into empathy, with the idea of such fragile, self-absorbed, even neurotic (from a modern perspective) love. The pastoral, carefree image of the cycle in comparison to the existentialism of Die Wintereisse is belied when one considers its programme, which describes a shocking arc of life to death. The only option, as indicated by Goerne, is to understand that the cycle presents a 'Sturm-und-Drang' attitude to life, an all or nothing romanticism which reads into even the smallest glance momentous condemnation.
Certainly Goerne brought this tempest out. His baritone voice leans more to the velvety end of things, but by sheer dint of range and weight his characterisation felt more mature, more charged with vigour, than the usual youthful lightness of a tenor interpretation. This burliness aided the impression of a multifaceted melancholia glimpsed early on that came to define the performance. Goerne's great strength is his ability to communicate, to inhabit personae, and I found his efforts here wholly compelling. Tending to draw things out where Aimard could be felt to want to move on, and to emphasise fine details of thought and poetry where Aimard focused on the tonal richness of the music, Goerne expressed a complexity of emotion that placed his efforts in the front rank of contemporary interpretations of the cycle.
I have alluded to something of a tension between the performers, and indeed such could be detected throughout. Any such tension was felt to be productive, however, exposing two musicians intent on questioning each detail, on living these emotions afresh, and on listening to the ideas of their partner in order to arrive at a thoroughly worked through reading. The opening 'Das Wandern', in contrast to the later reposed or angry atmosphere, skipped along with a vigorous bounce, Aimard all the while giving hints of the business like, aloof technician that sometimes mars his performances. As the cycle progressed, however, the toing and froing of the two men’s confident intentions aligned to make something truly powerful. The rich shifts in tempo and the bold tonal colours of 'Der Neugierige' gave rise to glistening, stunning moments of music making, whilst the following 'Ungeduld' had each man barking along at a frenzied pitch, exaggeratedly painting the text. 'Mein!' and 'Eifersucht und Stolz' proved particular highpoints of intensity, with the former sending out ripples of energy into the already rapt hall, and the latter drawing us all in to the darkening torments that drew the poor miller inexorably on to his grave.
I have rarely been so spellbound as I was during the closing 'Des Baches Wiegenlied'. That lied's radiant piano music, circling around keys and levels of existence with those three simple, cognate motifs, was given a poignant sheen by a now transfigured Aimard (whose ability to draw out Schubertian sweetness and its companion intimate melancholy grew over the performance), whilst Goerne gave celestial notice with ever more graceful, ever more hushed, singing. The final first inversion chord, so enchanting, so affecting, positively glowed through a quiet concert hall. We had witnessed in this performance something of a true tragedy, a slice of transcendent performance that knew of the complexity of life and the need to remain steadfast in the face of diversity, but that gave into that diversity nonetheless. Lengthy and emotional ovation followed the performance.
Photo: Matthias Goerne
Related articles:
Concert Review: Sakari Oramo conducts the Chamber Orchestra of Europe at BOZAR
CD Review: Mathias Goerne with Christoph Eschenbach in Die schöne Müllerin (HMC901995)
Concert Review: Matthias Goerne and the London Sinfonietta in Thomas Larcher