.
After a big, hard
day’s work of gym and typing, we decided last night that we were due a relaxing
night out.
Paul and I had
both been looking for weeks for an opportunity to revisit the Spiegelsaal. We’d
had such a treat there last year with the concert of the Trio Dan. Then, just
before the end of their season, we spotted the programme for last night …
soprano and piano in Berlioz, Britten and who? … well, sounds promising, give
it a go.
Picking a concert
like that is rather like pulling a card from a deck: you might get the two of
clubs or, if you are lucky, the ace of spades. Well, last night we got the
queen of hearts. The best surprise of the year. Maybe of years.
Léa
Trommenschlager is a 28 year-old Alsatian soprano who has trained in France and
in Berlin. I don’t know in which country and from which teacher she acquired
her technique, but whichever and whoever it was is a star. I can’t remember
when I have heard such a glorious, rich, seemingly effortless voice produced in
such a beautiful fashion. The notes glided forth sweetly yet impressively, with
never a rough edge, impeccably tuneful and in tune …
I jabbed Paul
joyously with my elbow after the very first phrases of the Berlioz … we’ve
picked a winner!
And it wasn’t just
‘the voice’. With what intelligence and understanding the young singer shaped
her phrases. No shallow dramatics pasted onto the performance, the warmth and
feeling came from the music, gently and easily and without artifice. Delicious.
The Berlioz ‘Nuits
d’été’ provided the opportunity for a lavish display of the beauties of Mdlle
Trommenschlager’s voice and singing. Lush and moody, and without showy vocal
effects … you could sit back and just allow yourself to bathe in the langours
of the music. This was our second bath in Berlioz this week, after the Damnation de Faust, and I rather
preferred it to the first.
The second half of
the concert was all new to me. First, a selection from a cycle called Yellow Leaves by Charlotte Bray and
Caroline Cowie, based on Shakespeare’s sonnets. A curious idea, but the result
was much more agreeable than the settings of the same works I heard last year
at the Staatsoper. Then, Britten’s setting of Auden’s On This Island. Here, the singer let us see other facets of her
talent – including humour and more florid singing. I see she has sung
Fiordiligi at the Tischlerei so there is even more to her artillery than we got
tonight. But I don’t think I want to hear Fiordiligi. Not yet anyhow. I just
wanted more of what we got last night. More truly beautiful Lieder singing.
The vocalist’s
partner in performance was the Latvian pianist Elizabete Sirante who fulfilled
her half-share in the night’s music splendidly, helping to make the whole
evening’s entertainment into what was certainly my favourite recital in a long
time. Perhaps since 1968, when I saw Victoria de los Angeles -- whom this singer somewhat reminded me of -- at London's Festival Hall.
I’ll probably draw
the two of clubs next time I take a lucky-dip into the Berlin concert barrel,
but who cares? This time I got the gros
lot.
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