When you really need a Lied
mainFrom the Lebrecht Album of the Week:
One of the marvels of English music-making in the past couple of years has been the emergence of Roderick Williams….
Read on here.
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Roderick Williams is a singer of extraordinary talent and artistry, something evident for much longer than the last ‘couple of years’. For me, he is the finest male singer in Britain – witness his recordings for Naxos of English Song, to say nothing of his sensitive operatic performances.
A fine musician — his repertoire is broad and diverse, too.
What a lovely singer, a marvel right up there with the
likes of Souzay.
I think he would say Welsh?
And not one word about the pianist?
Can you read?
There is indeed one word about the piano part, precisely one word, “pianism” at the end of the last sentence of the post. Snowy overlooked it and I almost did. With regard to works such as this, more than that one word is called for. In his book The Schubert Song Cycles, Gerald Moore wrote 72 pages about performance of Die Schone Mullerin. Some is too technical for non-musicians, but you would still benefit from reading the book.
By the by, ‘Danksagung’ means ‘thanksgiving’, not ‘thanks’, and the difference is not minor. But I shall not ask if you can read.
Actually, there are some words (more than just one) about the pianist.
“Every shade of emotion is caressed into existence, above the babbling brook and darkening sky of Iain Burnside’s intuitive accompaniment. Throughout the cycle, there is hardly one interpretive decision that I would question. Check out the fourth song — ‘thanks to the brook’ — to catch perhaps the most perfect Schubert singing and pianism of the present time.“