THE young German baritone Andreas Schmidt stood in yesterday at fairly
short notice for the billed artist Uwe Heilmann, who had to cancel
because of a throat infection. The programme, consisting solely of
Schubert's song cycle, Die Schone Mullerin, was unchanged.
And it sounded, at the opening of the first of the 20 songs,
distinctly unpromising. Pianist Geoffrey Parsons launched what appeared
to be a rather heavy-handed, bass-orientated, and almost clumpy
accompaniment. It quickly became clear, however, that this was entirely
in keeping with Schmidt's initial portrayal of the eventually tragic
young man as an earthy character, definitely of rough peasant stock.
It was also the beginning of what evolved into a fascinating
characterisation of a young, carefree lad, bewitched into lyricism at
his first awareness of the maid of the mill. Schmidt and Parsons gave a
quite enthralling account of developments: of the flickering pulse of
excitement in Ungelduld; of the charming ''look at but don't touch''
sense of gaucherie in Morgengruss; of the youth's turn to poeticism in
the succeeding song; of an earthy exultancy in Mein; and then down
through irony, concern, anger, frustration, and desperation as it all
goes wrong.
In other words, it was a very human interpretation by these two
performers; beautifully gauged in its development, sensitively and
fatefully resolved. Schmidt is only in his early thirties, but he has a
measure of this difficult cycle, and his performance yesterday suggests
that he will develop into a very mature interpreter; according to the
programme booklet, his future plans include a recording of the song
cycle. Possibly one to watch out for.
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