May 11-17, 2006
Arts : Artspicks
Schumann Beings
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The Chamber Society has two of the world's more celebrated young champions of German song on hand for an exploration of the hyper-Romantic works of Robert Schumann, of whose death this year marks the 150th anniversary. Dorothea Röschmann brings splendid musicality and her gorgeously timbred voice to the classic works for German lyric
oprano, but she's a lot gutsier and more communicative than Ian Bostridge, who, while more famous, is also more controversial; some consider the lanky English tenor a mannered creation of Anglophile hype (he looks like the wan, bookish brother in a Merchant/Ivory film) and others find him the most expressive singer around. His intelligence and wise choice of collaborators is never in doubt.This interestingly contrasted pair offers
two sets of duets, Opus 34 (1840) and Opus 78 (1849). These evocative gems, entertaining to watch in performance, are not heard often enough. The cycle Myrthen, also from 1840, contains 26 settings of poems by, among others, Goethe, Heine and Rückert. It contains the popular masterpieces "Widmung" ("A Dedication") and "Du bist wie eine Blume" ("You are like a flower"). Schumann, married to one of the foremost keyboard virtuosi of the 19th century (Clara Wieck), wrote testing parts for the piano. Fortunately the excellent Julius Drake, Bostridge's usual accompanist, is on hand for the challenge.
