Schubertiade

Big star line-up and a lady in pink

Stars, stars, stars: a great deal of vocal expertise was on offer in Schwarzenberg on Monday.

(Bild: (c) Schubertiade GmbH)

At the Schubertiade classical music festival in Schwarzenberg (Vorarlberg), a whole line-up of singers took part in the ensemble concert on Monday - followed by Julia Kleiter on Tuesday.  

An ensemble concert with the Schubertiade's audience favorites is always a crowd-puller, as you get to experience several stars at once. On Monday evening, eight men took to the podium of the Angelika Kaufmann Hall, including such magical greats as Andrè Schuen, Konstantin Krimmel and Ilker Arcayürek, as well as Patrick Grahl, Kierran Carrel as a stand-in, Jan Petryka, David Steffens and the fabulous Andreas Bauer Kanabas, plus Daniel Heide on the piano.

Musically, however, such an ensemble concert proves to be rather mixed, as eight soloists, no matter how good, do not make a choral sound. Especially at the beginning of this concert with Schubert, such a sound hardly emerged, although it did develop over the course of the evening.

Final applause would have been deserved
In addition to Schubert's songs, the folk song arrangements by Friedrich Silcher were particularly convincing. The highlight of the concert, however, was the "Gesang der Geister über den Wassern", which Schubert composed in two versions after Goethe. An instrumental ensemble of Vorarlberg musicians joined in. Karoline Kurzemann-Pilz and Gyöngyi Ellensohn, viola, Franz Ortner and Fabian Jäger, cello, and Bernd Konzett, double bass, played wonderfully and deserved to be allowed to take another bow during the final applause.

Julia Kleiter played together with Julius Drake.

(Bild: (c) Schubertiade GmbH)

The song recital by Julia Kleiter, soprano, and Julius Drake, piano, also began with folk songs, here arranged by Brahms. The attractive singer in the pink robe performed these beautiful petitessen with great expression.

Worldly, airy
Julia Kleiter then presented a variety of styles with a total of twelve songs by Schubert. The "Romance from Rosamunde" was worldly and forgetful, the "Ständchen" was fragrant, "Der Zwerg" was dramatic and "Gretchen am Spinnrade" was very complex, as Julia Kleiter made the coming tragedy of this character palpable. Julius Drake at the piano also savored the tonal colors and was thus of one mind with the singer, whose voice was able to portray all this complexity without any effort.

The two were in their element with the concluding songs by Franz Liszt, as these offer sonorous possibilities for both the singer and the pianist. Nevertheless, the evening ended very softly with "Klinge leise, mein Lied". Two encores followed: "Ständchen" by Richard Strauss and "Du holde Kunst" by Schubert.