Last Tuesday, 13th October, my friend and I went to Esplanade Recital Studio. The Young Musicians Society has organized a German Arts Song recital in its lovely after eight series: concerts that start at one minute past 8 (doesn´t change anything on the audience attitude, some make it still a after 8.30 series).
We went because the wonderful and not easy to sing song cycle Die Winterreise was on the programme. By whom? That was the first little pain the programme gave us: we, both singing teachers, always thought, Winterreise was by Franz Schubert. But the programme made clear to us: Hey, Schubert is not that important. Today, Winterreise is solely by Eng Meng Chia ... with a little help by Shane Thio. The title page of the programme as well as the advertisement postcard write: "Winterreise by Eng Meng Chia", Schubert not mentioned. And this problem stayed on during the performance.
Impressive, that the recital studio was really full. Soon and unpleasantly one could soon see that it was a lot of the singers wellwishers and friends. Did the announcement say, please do not clap in between the songs but only at the end of the first part? Most of the audience was so wellwishing and pleased when the singer got through the first song, that they started to clap afterwards, and kept doing so after each song. This is something, that is just not allowed to happen in a song cycle. And the singer could have avoided it. However, instead of trying to add one song tightly after the other, and keeping up his stage presence to indicate clearly to the audience that there is no space for clapping, Eng started to relax after each song, turn around, clear his nose, and drink from a plastic water bottle, visibly placed beside the piano. With the songs progressing, the gaps for drinking became longer and longer. Those who know song cycles better , know, that some songs belong together in emotional or sense units, yes even the keys are sometimes so related that it is obvious that one song must lead straight into the other...but this was all destroyed. It became an annoyance, clapping, drinking, and the songs being not understood and representing what they are supposed to create emotionally in the audience.
Unfortunately, also the singing of the Baritone seemed to become increasingly forced and painful throughout the first 12 songs. Mainly staying in the same posture, after drinking and rubbing the nose leaning with a selfpleasant grin at the piano, the forte passages reminded more and more of shouts than expressive singing, the piano passages less and less supported and therefore increasingly covered. Eng sounded initially, (and his credentials promised so) as if he knows what he is doing. His voice sounded like having a profund technique and his German diction was clear at the start. but (using a score at the side), more and more words got mixed up. It still sounded clear, but those who had memorized Winterreise, or those who know German, found that some words were made up or exchanged. Doubtless, the man has a wide range, a strong voice, and a lot of courage to put up the entire Winterreise. After the concert, which i left at the intermission because I could not accept the harshness of the voice and the drinking and clapping, i wished, people would have less courage and more respect for the level of difficulty of a piece, more respect for the composer and what he wanted, and more influence on the audience not to behave so unknowledgable.
I m not a Lied hardliner, always open to different interpretations: I love the totally baroque sung version of Michael Schopper, the psycho film with Ian Bostridge, the old man Fischer-Dieskau. However different their nuances are, I can feel they made their thoughts about what Schubert meant, and take Schubert still as the authority for their singing.
Even Shane, the pianist, seemed to be not what he usually is: I love the man as Lied accompanist, in many many recitals. But here, there were mistakes, and I know if he is fully into it, he would have brought out some nuances much more, but it was as if he had given up on it already.
I want to end with a remark my former student wrote on my facebook. She is Musical Theatre student, therefore not preoccupied about classical pieces which classical musicians might treat like drops from the holy gral. and i find it interesting to hear her remarks about classical music:
"am writing analytical paper about der lindenbaum, schubert setting evidently. DUDE. i should totally get you to come guest speak at wesleyan. [...] but dude! how awesome would that be. okay anyway i just wanted to say winterreise is like a bad emo rock album. the guy's walking around all suicidal and the leaves remind him of his ex girlfriend... i mean seriously... and the bostridge movie you can find on youtube is really weird."
I think, she got it better than the performance last Tuesday. At least she feels something.
