Johnny Herford |
The advantage of this, from the performers' point of view, is that the audience is actually looking at the performers rather than having their heads buried in the printed copies. The surtitles were projected on the wall above the singer's head so that we could take in both the text and Johnny Herford's facial expressions.
Gary Mattheman © Johan Persson |
The first group was all Schubert, with the long Waldes-Nacht at the centre of a group consisting of Auf dem See; Wandrers Nachtlied I; Das Fischermädchen; Dass sie hier gewesen!; Waldes-Nacht; Im Abendrot; Lachen und Weinen; An die Musik; Die Taubenpost; Wandrers Nachtlied II. Thus giving us a variety of moods and durations, with some profoundly beautiful moments. Johnny Herford and Gary Matthewman's control of structure was superb in the long Waldes-Nacht and throughout performances were finely involving and superbly crafted.
The Nielsen songs were from Vise og vers Op 6, one of his early song sets. Here the two performed Genrebillede; Seraferne; Silkesko over gylden Læst!; Vise af „Mogens”. They are varied and charming songs, disarmingly sung in performances which made us want to get to know more.
After the interval we had a sequence of Eichendorff settings by Hugo Wolf, all about the various different trials of love, Erwartung; Das Ständchen; Der Scholar; Nachtzauber; Liebesglück; Der Soldat I; Unfall; Seemanns Abschied. Not all were well known, and both performers brought out the remarkable complexity and modernism of Wolf's sound-world in vividly characterised performances.
Finally we had George Butterworth's Six Songs from A Shropshire Lad - Loveliest of trees; When I was one-and-twenty; Look not in my eyes; Think no more, lad; The lads in their hundreds; Is my team ploughing? Where Johnny Herford showed that the same virtues which had shone through in the Schubert, applied in English too. A finely burnished vocal line with highly expressive words, these were poignantly moving songs. We finished with an extra, RVW's Silent Noon.
I should have probably added that I found the surtitles a total success
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