Matthias Goerne recital--Schubert Lieder-Zykler

14, May 2014, 19:00
Kioi Hall
Matthias Goerne, Balitone & Alexander Schmalcz, Piano

Ludwig van Beethoven: An die Ferne Geliebte op.98
Franz Schubert: Schwanengesang D.957

Matthias Goerne, a 47 year-old German baritone singer, performed Schubert's song cycles at three concerts in a row at Kioi Hall in Tokyo.
I attended one of them, at which he sang Schubert's "Schwanengesang" (Swan Song, in English).

Although I had not planned to attend his concerts, I luckily won the concert ticket in a lottery.
I presumed that the ticket sales of the concerts were much worse than expected.
Perhaps, one reason why is that all the concerts were held on weekdays, just in Tokyo.
If they were scheduled on the weekend, more fans could have attended them from a distance.
My guess is that the organizer thought it was better to fill up vacant seats even by free tickets.

At any rate, I gratefully attended the concert in expectation.

Goerne's voice was soft like velvet.
His articulation was flowing and edgeless, and the words were pleasant to the ears, even though the lyrics were written in German.

"Schwanengesang" was composed shortly before Schubert's death, and posthumously published.
This cycle includes several songs which have a dark or somber atmosphere, quite likely reflecting the diseased composer's loneliness and fear in his last days.
Absorbed in Goerne's profound interpretations, I felt like I was on a journey to the inner world of Schubert, which hovers between solitude and intimacy, despair and peace, life and death.