Mahler’s settings of translations of historic Chinese language verses in his symphony Das Lied von der Erde are most likely the most effective identified of their variety, however he was not alone in being seduced by the poetry of the Tang dynasty. For this recital, marking the start of the Chinese language new 12 months, the bass-baritone Shenyang assembled songs by 15 composers (a sequence barely prolonged of their Wigmore Corridor look on the weekend). Not at all all acquainted, these had been primarily Twentieth-century names, although typically extra Nineteenth-century Romantic in fashion.
Entitling the programme Variations of Jade – the stone whose title means pure, defined Shenyang – it was each the number of fashion and the variations within the richly expressive element Shenyang dropped at his interpretations that made for compelling listening. Simon Lepper’s teasing out of the descriptive character of the piano writing was essential, whether or not complementing the vocal colors or driving the music on.
That the songs had been delivered in no fewer that six languages, – Swedish and Czech in addition to German, English, French and Chinese language – proved the attraction of this poetry for thus many, although within the absence of any translations, it was simply as effectively that Shenyang communicated feelings vividly, the voice velvet and phrasing at all times elegant, even within the impassioned outbursts. He maximised the gorgeous economic system of Webern’s Die Geheimnisvolle Flöte (The Mysterious Flute), and captured the “whispering farewell” of Peter Warlock’s Alongside the Stream, whereas letting rip in Cyril Scott’s A Music of Wine.
However for dramatic drive, and a sign of the artist Shenyang has change into since profitable the 2007 Cardiff singer of the world title, it was Daleko měsíc je od domova (Far is the Moon of Residence) the third of Pavel Haas’s 4 Songs on Chinese language Poetry, which was strongest. It was one in every of Haas’s final compositions, written within the Theresienstadt focus camp not lengthy earlier than he died in Auschwitz, and Shenyang embraced its tender longing – its disappointment in addition to an internal rage – with Lepper bringing an equal drive to the prolonged piano solo. With their closing modern setting by Yinghai Li of Zhang Ji’s A Night time Mooring by Maple Bridge, the obstacles of time and geopolitics appeared once more to vanish.
Shengyang and Simon Lepper play on the Wigmore Corridor, London, on Saturday 28 January.
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