Favourite songs & last words: Schubert weekend in Oxford with Nikola Hillebrand, Julius Drake, Thomas Oliemans & Paolo Giacometti

Schubert with friends Johann Baptist Jenger & Anselm Huttenbrenner - Chalk drawing, 1827, by Josef Eduard Teltscher

Schubert Weekend: Nikola Hillebrand, Julius Drake, Thomas Oliemans, Paolo Giacometti; Oxford International Song Festival at Holywell Music Room
Reviewed 19 October 2025

A young German soprano making her festival debut with a profoundly beautiful and expressive afternoon of favourite songs. Then in the evening, a festival favourite returned with an intense account of Schubert's final song cycle. Last words indeed.

Sunday 19 October was the second day of this year's Oxford International Song Festival's Schubert weekend with concerts including an afternoon event with soprano Nikola Hillebrand and pianist Julius Drake in favourite Schubert songs, and then in the evening baritone Thomas Oliemans and pianist Paolo Giacometti in Schubert's Schwanengesang plus two late-works for piano duet.

Nikola Hillebrand is a young German soprano making a name for herself in opera and song, bringing a lovely fresh approach to her afternoon recital. By contrast THomas Oliemans is a festival favourite. A born story teller in 2023 we heard him in Wolf's Mörike-Lieder [see my review] and in 2019 in a Day of the Dead themed programme [see my review] though we missed his astonishing self-accompanied Winterreise in 2022.

At the Holywell Music Room, Nikola Hillebrand and Julius Drake presented an afternoon programme called Im Abentrot, named for the Schubert song that opened a programme which then explored links both familiar and unfamiliar. This was Hillebrand's debut at the festival; she won the prestigious ‘Das Lied’ competition in Heidelberg in 2019. She was a member of the Semperoper Dresden ensemble from 2020 to 2024, along with appearances at Bavarian State Opera, Opera House Zürich, Hamburg State Opera and the Salzburg Festival. She appeared as Barbarina in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro at Glyndebourne in 2016.

In Im Abentrot her vivid tone and sense of line was complemented by the subtle, low key beauty of Drake's piano. They captured the radiance of the song but it was the beauty of the quiet moments that stayed with you. Wehmut paired Drake's uncompromising piano with her firm toned response, full of lyric melancholy. Their account of Ganymed brought out the dichotomy of the song, Drake's insouciant piano with moments of sly naughtiness supporting Hillebrand's more serious approach ending with eager urgency. Wandrers Nachtlied I was small, yet perfectly intimate. Der Musensohn was taken quite fast, though Drake still brought plenty of character to the piano and Hillebrand was vibrant yet carefree.

Hillebrand is a highly communicative singer, using her vividly toned voice and sense of line to really convey the inner meaning of the songs. She had a remarkable ability to capture emotional atmosphere in a few lines.

Drake made the piano accompaniment in Auf dem Wasser zu Singen sound like an Impromtu, with Hillebrand's lightly joyous voice revelling in lovely phrasing over the top. Frühlingsglaube was understated with seriousness of intention underneath the beauty. Nachtstück was intimate and deeply felt, with strong piano support. The second verse's joy never breaking the intimacy. Der Tod und das Mädchen isn't a long song, but thank's to Schubert's use of its melody elsewhere it has a long reach. The first verse was all urgent drama, the second had a remarkable quiet intensity. And it was dark intensity that continued with Die junge Nonne. There was an inwardness here rather than any sense of showy drama, yet the middle verses were radiant.

The aria 'Vedi, quanto adoro' from Didone Abbandonata is something of a curiosity. Written in 1816 for Salieri (with whom Schubert studied from 1812 to 1814) there is a sense of looking back, or perhaps trying on a different form with a view to getting employment. A recitative with a strong feeling of late-Mozart accompagnato led to a touching aria that nonetheless had moments of elaboration in the vocal line, and of course a big finish.

Lachen und Weinen was most appropriately given lightly yet with a vein of seriousness.  Nähe des Geliebten also had a gentle seriousness alongside its lyricism. Da Mädchens Klage paired a strong, intent piano with a focused highly serious vocal line bringing out the intensity of feeling. Ständchen was concentrated and for all the beauty of line, it was the sense of interior feeling that came over. Suleika I was urgeng yet on edge, the climax leading to an intimate, tender close. Finally Du bist die Ruh where piano and voice were united in their sense of intimate delicacy leading to radiance at the end.

We were treated to an encore, Die Forelle.

In the evening, Thomas Oliemans and Paolo Giacometti's concert explored very late Schubert. Given that in 2022, Thomas Oliemans performed Winterreise at the festival accompanying himself on the piano, it should come as no surprise that the performers decided to pair Schubert's final song cycle (if it is a cycle at all) Schwanengesang with two of his works for piano duet, the Rondo in A major, D951 and the Fantasie in F minor D940 with Oliemans swapping voice for piano.

We began with the Rondo in A major which commentators speculate may have been part of a planned sonata. It formed a gently melodic start to the concert, yet we could enjoy the imaginative way Schubert manipulated his performrs with the busy, rolling inner lines. And engaging work, part of me wondered whether it felt a little too carefree to act as a prelude to Schwanengesang, but then again we should not make the mistake of thinking that all late Schubert is about gloom.

There has been a tendency of late [such as in Matthias Goerne's recent Wigmore Hall recital, see my review] to ignore suggestions that Schwanengesang is a song cycle and deconstruct it. There is a lot ot be said for this approach, but I still remember a remarkable performance by Mark Padmore at the Wimbledon Festival in 2012 [see my review] where he convincingly argued for it being a coherent work. Here Oliemans and Giacometti performed the Relstab settings before the interval, the Heine after it followed by the Fantasie and then gave us Der Taubenpost as an encore. 

Liebesbotschaft featured Giacometti's richly textured yet gentle piano playing. Throughout the evening, I noted the way Giacometti brought out the complexity of the piano writing without ever being showily demonstrative. Olieman's sang with a remarkable focused intensity and in the whole cycle he had a disconcerting way of staring into the middle distance as if he was singing not to us but to his distant and unattainable beloved. Kriegers Ahnung was deep, dark and thoughtful with lyrical beauty when the beloved came into mind. Frühlingssehnsucht  was urgent, with Giacometti's busy piano not over present, yet the final words of each verse were truly unnerving, and the climax devastating. Ständchen had strong emotions under its apparent beauty then Aufenthalt was dearkly threatening, with Oliemans becoming very insistent as he described his sorrow. In der Ferne was positively gripping, the way Oliemans presented it as dark and concentrated, as if in deep thought, supported by Giacometti's stark piano. The final verse was indeed more consoling yet ended intensely. Abschied combined vivid piano rhythms with a firm insistence of voice and vivid words. The final verse, indeed, rather less certain.

After a short interval we returned to the Heine settings.  Der Atlas was firm, insistent and restless, the second verse featuring a remarkable variety of emotions passing, leadingt to an unbearable climax. Ihr Bild was concentrated but start, the final verse and edge of the seat moment. For all its light beauty, there was a disturbing element of seduction in Das Fischermädchen. By contrast, in Die Stadt, Giacometti's colourful yet unnerving piano complemented Oliemans' strong, uncompromising performance creating something rather haunted. Am Meer felt as if it was strong emotion recollected in quiet, technically superb with sustained line and brilliant words but far more than that. The final lines reaching an intense morbidity. Der Doppelgänger was dark, concentrated and almost overwhelming.

Throughout the songs, what was noticeable was the remarkable way Oliemans conveyed the emotions boiling below the surface. His performances were not specifically demonstrative yet Oliemans has a highly expressive face that complemented his performance. The whole cycle felt it was being presented as a man's last words, strong emotions recalled in quietude before...?

Follow that! Well Oliemans and Giacometti gave us the Fantasie in F minor, the consoling melancholy of the opening section forming a mediating bridge between the intensity of Schwanengesang and the lighter moments in the Fantasie. The work is loosely a sonata, but in four continuous movements with a freedom to it, so Schubert's use of the opening material as a motto theme is distinctive. Here we moved from intense drama, to uncompromising to consoling, with the opening material returning towards the end yet developing remarkable intensity.

The work is associated with Schubert's relationship with Caroline Esterhazy whom he had taught piano. The posthumously published work is dedicated to her but there is no mention on the manuscript. Certainly, in terms of the intimate relations between the two pianists it was a saucy work to suggest Schubert playing with his aristocratic pupil, the two players hands almost intertwining at times.

The concert was an interesting solution of what to put with Schwanengesang but such was the bleak intensity of Olieman's performance that I hardly felt it needed any further word. 

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