Malta Arts Festival - Such overwhelming passion in a little song!

German Lieder is a very specialised genre that is for many an acquired taste. It is overwhelmingly sad, gloomy and fatalistic but, oh, so gloriously so that those who come to appreciate it inevitably end up by loving it passionately. Lieder is intricately tied to the poetry that inspired the great Teutonic masters to create these gem-like songs; poetry that suffers terribly in translation unless one understands something about the German poets and the German language and above all the German psyche in which certain words, especially when used in a certain way, convey a depth of emotion that simply do not work the same way in English. Because of this, I had often wondered why, what appears to be such prosaic German verse at face value, inspired such divine musical settings. What were the deep sentiments eked out by such sensitive piano writing? A few conversations with someone who understands far more than I do about the world of German literature is enough to put you right and one can literally take the passion that hits you in the face in blind faith. Lieder epitomises the Romantic and the gemutlicht bringing together the self-absorbed and almost morbid world of Goethe's Werther and making a hero out of misery!

Ian Bostridge is a master of the genre. His interpretations of Schubert and Brahms are celebrated in many a CD recording and all one has to do is look him up on You Tube to discover how vast and versatile his repertoire is. His rounded and resonant voice, with its amazing and always consistent range, is ideally suited to convey the deep and stirring emotion of these little songs that were composed primarily for domestic use; songs about rejected love, unrequited love, suicidal love, hopeless love that ennobles the state of being into something one would almost wish to feel just to experience that depth of emotion that a love-lorn Schubert or Brahms could create with such splendid verse scanning and piano-writing.

One can forget Hiene or the Schiller and with just the gist of what the poem is actually about be transported into a world that is particularly gloomy and full of German sturm und drang but so nobly gloomy and sturm und drangish at the same time; a world of velvety dark colour, laden in nuance and expression that touches your very soul.

Ian Bostridge is a singer who can do precisely that. So rich and deep is his interpretative power and so superbly polished is his style and utterly lovely singing voice that Lieder when performed by him become utterly unforgettable.

I loved the Brahms Nine Lieder and the Four Hiene settings. Brahms was a great miniaturist. Composed at a time when he was still working on his more monumental works, these songs presage that sublime beauty present in his later compositions; Klavierstuke Opus 118 and his Intermezzi Opus 117, works that are in themselves songs without words. When composing a song cycle it seems the accepted norm that the ratio of one out of three should be slightly less lugubrious than the rest. The long drawn out legatos of Sommerabend were matchless, as was the desolate Der Todd as ist die kuhle Nacht, in fact, the entire Brahms opus with its intricate piano accompaniment which brings me to the extol the sheer mastery of pianist Julius Drake.

It was in that soul-searching Schumann Dichterliebe that the keyboard poetry came into its own. It is said that Schumann's music was too emotional for young ladies to listen to. Remember these were days when billiard table legs were covered by skirts not to induce lascivious thoughts! The passion in Dichterliebe comes to a climax towards the middle of the cycle with Im Rhien and Ich grolle nicht two great works of singular passion that I have never fallen out of love with. Many of the songs have these fairytale endings in solo piano perorations that echo and transcribe feeling into that impalpable abstraction we call music. Delicately and sensitively performed by Julius Drake, I was fascinated as Mr Bostridge as if overcome with emotion gave us his back and stared into the piano strings. The songs in Dichterliebe were performed without a break, one following the other, allowing just a sharp intake of breath in between. The effect was overwhelming as, just like string of priceless pearls, the iridescent passion of the music was conveyed to us with such inimitable style.

I would have expected far more people in the audience than there were on Wednesday night all things being that Ian Bostridge is in fact a household name. For those who were there I am sure that like me they will agree that the song recital marks an unforgettably poignant but utterly enjoyable experience in their lives.