Ian Bostridge - Schubert: Lieder, Vol. 1

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Music reviews of Schubert: Lieder, Vol. 1

Music Review: ALMOST TOO BEAUTIFUL
Rating: 5 Stars

At this level of artistry, it is almost silly to indulge in any nitpicking, but listeners who are already familiar with recitals by the German masters may find some of these tenor interpretations just too lyrical. Take the two grim Gothic fantasies as the clearest example: "Der Zwerg" depicts a beautiful young queen being slowly strangled and dumped into the sea by a twisted and deformed court jester who has been driven mad by jealousy for her affections. "Erlkonig" tells of a man racing through the forest on horseback unaware that the soul of the young son in his arms is being stolen away by the phantom Forest King. These are hideous images, and I am not completely convinced that Bostridge (for all his staggering talent and discipline) has yet developed the subtle dramatic judgement that they demand - the great Fischer-Dieskau has confirmed that in this regard the lied is infinitely more demanding than opera.

Thus in Der Zwerg, the sustained beauty of Bostridge's singing gives us few cues that we are listening to anything radically different from the ruminations on love, art nature and loss that make up the bulk of the album. And yet in Erlkonig (a specially demanding piece that requires the singer to represent a narrator and three different characters), he overshoots in the opposite direction - he gives a performance of chilling power and dramatic range, but only at the expense of the subtlety and the overarching unity of style and voice that should set even the most dramatic art-song apart from opera. (The singer of a narrative song is required to be a story-teller, not an actor).

These quibbles needed explaining, but they will be of minor importance to anyone but a Teutonic purist. Bostridge's glorious bel canto voice, already one of the brightest lights in Britain's music industry, may at present be less than perfectly matched to the classical German art-song. However, few exponents of the lied have reached musical maturity before middle age, and Bostridge (whose cover photo incidentally bears a striking resemblance to the great French baritone, Gerard Souzay) has many years in which to develop this highly specialised art. More to the point, this is a fine album in its own right, and one that will sound better to most British and American ears than the gruffer and more clipped renditions of the great German baritones.

Description of Schubert: Lieder, Vol. 1

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