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A Youthful and Satisfying Die Winterreise Alexander Dobson, baritone Yannick Nézet-Séguin, piano Saturday, February 3, 2007 Heliconian Hall, Toronto
By Joseph So February 13, 2007 |  |
The Mount Everest of German song
cycles, Schubert’s Die Winterreise places daunting demands on the
singer. To do it justice, the soloist must have the requisite beauty of
tone, a two-octave range backed by a solid technique, an innate
musicality, not to mention the ability to commit the huge 24-song cycle
– about eighty minutes of non-stop singing – to memory. Sometimes, an
insecure singer would have the song text or notes hidden in the piano,
but I draw the line when it comes to performances given with an
intermission, as the mood is broken. Then there is the not so simple
matter of communication – the singer must have something to say. On a
recent, suitably wintry evening, an audience made up mostly of vocal
cognoscenti, including a liberal sprinkling of singers, braved the
elements and was rewarded with a superlative Die Winterreise. In an age
of rampant commercialism, it is gratifying to see that the lieder
recital genre is still alive and well, albeit not in the cavernous, Roy
Thomson, but in the much more intimate, indeed preferable, surroundings
of Heliconian Hall, capacity 110.
The protagonist on this occasion was baritone Alexander Dobson. I
have heard him on a number of occasions, including a recent Amadeus
Choir Messiah and small roles with Opera Ontario. My previous impression
was that of a well schooled, intelligent and musical singer with a fine
voice, but it didn’t prepare me for what he could do with Schubert’s
masterpiece. One is loath to make comparisons, but of the many, many
Winterreise I have heard the last forty years, Dobson’s ranked highly. I
understand this was his sixth or seventh go at this piece, although he
had not sung it for five years and previous outings were when he was a
student. Putting it simply, I find his voice to be absolutely perfect
for this cycle, and overall, his performance was very impressive. First
of all, he has the technical arsenal to do the cycle justice – there
were no vocal compromises, everything was given its full measure. His
beautiful and expressive baritone is quite dark, almost that of a
bass-baritone when he decides to use a darker coloration in certain
phrases, yet the high tessitura of some of the songs hold no terror for
him. His passionate singing of ‘Erstarrung’, quite a difficult song for
low voices, was fluid and supple, full of ecstasy and pain. He committed
the cycle to memory, and there were no lapses that I was able to detect.
He had the stamina to do it all without a break, not even a sip of
water! Other than a couple of times when he lagged behind the piano,
there were no musical slip-ups to speak of, which is more than I can say
when it comes to some of the stars who have attempted this piece in
Toronto in the recent years.
Dobson’s interpretation is powerful in a youthful, extroverted,
heart-on-sleeve, dramatic, even operatic sort of way, appropriate for a
singer still in his early 30’s. This is not to say he blasted his way
through the cycle – quite the contrary, he had exemplary sensitivity and
nuance in his delivery. He is still very much in the bloom of youth at
this point in his artistic journey. With age and experience, his
interpretation is bound to take on greater chiaroscuro and
introspection. He handled the many changes of mood well; and I sensed
a genuine and heart-felt connection to the music. He was helped in no
small way by conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin at the keyboard. In town
for his COC debut conducting Faust, Nézet-Séguin, who had worked with
Dobson when the singer was at Montreal Opera, decided to spend his day
off playing his first Winterreise. One would never have guessed that it
was his first stab at the piece – his playing was fresh, crisp, assured,
well paced, and above all very much alive, even when faced with a piano
that was not up to the high standards of the major concert halls. Very
much a singer’s conductor, Nézet-Séguin was ever the supportive
colleague, breathing the music with the soloist. Kudos to him for not
doing anything flashy to take the spotlight away, yet he was always
there to offer sympathetic support. The eighty minutes went by in such
a flash that I almost didn’t want it to end. Let’s hope there will be
many more opportunities to hear these two young artists collaborate in
the future.
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