THE International Festival's exploration of song this past week has journeyed from songs with words in languages other than the composers' own to songs without any words and then, on Saturday morning, to composers who turned to the same words for ins
piration.
In Christine Schäfer's rather uneventful recital, it was Hugo Wolf's version of Goethe's often-set Mignon Lieder that fared better than that of Schumann's to start. While the darker tones of the closing Wolf piece brought out the emotional content of the lyrics' romance, Schäfer's Schumann suffered from an uncomfortable mismatch of balance between her light-sounding voice and pianist Graham Johnson's more expressive – at times almost too loud – accompaniment.
Schäfer's diction was crisp and clear, and her control in the sustained lines of Es Träumte Mir, one of the eight songs from Brahms's Op 57, was impressive. But, like the Schumann, these songs needed a softer approach to colour and warmth for them to bloom more fully.
However, Brahms's delightful Mädchenlieder – six songs about girls and love – were all the better for Johnson's thoughtful part in conveying their tales.
The full article contains 201 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
