Baritone sings recital of Schumann

Author: Andrew Throdahl

Page-turning can be a stressful activity, especially when the page-turner is thrust on stage, score in hand, with an alien ensemble, expected to follow along despite being unfamiliar with the music. If the ensemble is good, all the worse for the page-turner, who must keep him or herself from being distracted by the sonic frenzy. I used to think of it as one of those sing-a-longs - "Just follow the dots, follow the dots," I told myself. I spent most of last week in earnest excitement for page-turning Christian Gerhaher and Gerold Huber concert on Oct. 13, not knowing quite what to expect. A part of me was slightly disappointed when I learned that because pianist Huber found page-turners nerve-racking, he had photo copied his score so that he would not have to deal with the page-turner's shaky hand creeping across the page every 40 bars.

Sitting in the audience rather than on stage I found baritone Gerhaher an unobtrusive stage presence and pianist Huber a tense and meticulous accompanist. They seemed to be a match made by Robert Schumann himself. The pair performed a series of Schumann Lieder to a sparsely occupied concert hall in spite of Gerhaher's announced illness the previous night. Gerhaher seemed pale towards the end of the program, but his burnished tone was consistent throughout, and he managed to convey the most intense moments of the songs with energy and aplomb. If his voice was in bad shape Saturday night, what is he like on a good day?

Schumann's lieder, whose subjects include wandering knights, despondent lovers and wailing maidens, risk becoming antiquated in an age when songs must be blatant to the point of being mind-numbing in order to convey whatever sophomoric message is intended. As required with music of this relative subtlety, Gerhaher and Huber's apparent perfectionism obscured whatever prejudices one might hold. Both artists were dressed in tails, and their polished interpretations had an appropriately aristocratic air. Compared to some of his other music, Schumann seemed to let his hair down in some of these songs. Take the descending triplets of "Fruhlingsnacht," juxtaposed against a hearty, Romantic melody - this musical gesture does not have the consciousness of, say, the double canon that closes his Piano Quintet op. 44. In his

Lieder, the listener gets a glimpse of a musical genius at ease, letting what one might imagine as his daydreams work themselves out on paper.

Gerhaher had an ethereal purity of tone. He called to mind another great Lieder interpreter, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, a similarly lovely baritone. Gerhaher has a silvery tone and is pleasantly devoid of any of the histrionics plaguing the musical world. Incidentally, Fischer-Dieskau instructed Huber in proper methods of accompaniment - Fischer-Dieskau's favorite accompanists, Jorg Demus and Gerold Moore, played painstakingly soft. Huber himself has become one of these most modest of pianists, making each note sound like it was being plucked from his skin.

In many ways, the highlight of the performance was the swooning finale to Liederkreis op. 39, "Fruhlingsnacht," in which the singer finally finds fulfillment to the angst-ridden desire expressed throughout the cycle. In their interpretation, this brilliant number comes out of nowhere - Huber made a sharp transition to ebullience from the darker world of "Im Walde." Gerhaher sang the closing lines, "Sie ist dein, Sie ist dein," with an emotional flare, but still with his signature precision and taste. The song lasted only a minute but brought the house down.

This season, Gerhaher and Huber will perform all along the East Coast at Carnegie Hall, Yale University School of Music and the Vocal Arts Society in Washington, DC. Gerhaher will perform two of Mahler's great vocal works, Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen and Des Knaben Wunderhorn, during this season as well, under the esteemed batons of Harold Blumstedt and Riccardo Chailly. If you have not heard of Gerhaher yet, you soon will. There is little doubt he is one of the classical world's next big things, being coiffed for photo shoots, flashy albums and world tours. If you missed the concert and wish you had not, check out Huber and Gerhaher's recording of Schumann's most famous song cycle, Dichterliebe, on RCA compact disk and available for download from iTunes Music Store.