Search - Schumann, Marshall, Aide :: Lois Marshall: A Schumann Recital

Lois Marshall's Serenity and Spiritual Depth is Visionary!

Raymond Vacchino | Toronto, ON. Canada | 10/10/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"When icon conductor Toscanini conducted Lois Marshall's world debut at Carnegie Hall he declared her "The Greatest Singer of the 20th Century!" Marshall was one of Canada's greatest and best-loved singers. Musical America marveled at "her power to project with great immediacy and conviction the words and music she is singing; singing seems as natural to her as speech to a great actor." She was adored and worshipped in Russia, and yet remained very much a Canadian. Even her crippling polio did not stop her, her most valued thought that "No Obstacle can Stand in the Way of Greatness" was proven throughout her more than three decade career.

In this Schumann Recital Lois Marshall and pianist William Aide give performances that are to be treasured and hallmarked.

Schumann's vocal output included the three cycles performed here, to texts by Goethe, Byron, Heine and Joseph von Eichendorff, whose poems were published in 1837. Schumann selected some of these and made them into a song cycle, Liederkreis Op.39, linking them by key, dynamics and similarity or contrasts of text. In Mondnacht and Schone Fremade, both songs of the night, depict romantic moments and uses apparent formulaic images to create meaning and coherence in the cycle. As a team Marshall and Aide superbly create the varying moods and atmospheres of passion, intimacy and humanity in both. In the other songs of this cycle they refreshingly convey reflections of murmuring brooks, restling treetops, moonlit fields and singing nightingales. Frauenliebe und Leben, Op.42, is, by contrast, a narrative sequence of events depicting a woman's life and love. Here Schumann is considered to be explicitly and exclusively focused on his impending wedding to Clara, and its celebration. The poems used are written by Chamisso. Marshall's singing throughout consumes us with deep, inner emotion, joyful thoughts and visions of what the future holds.

Dichterliebe, Op.48, was composed by Schumann in just over a week at the end of May, 1840 and published four years later. It compromises between the two extremes, creating a narrative suggested by a sequence of poems chosen by the composer from Heinrich Heines's 1827 collection, Buch der Lieder, to sketch a story of unrequited love. It was to become the most popular-most widely known German Romantic song cycle, as it embodies the genre with powerful allure. " It is here that we hear Marshall and pianist William Aide create a musical experience like no other I've ever heard! The experience is filled with a rare closeness and true essence of the composer's soul, and poet's words, culminating into a performance of complete serenity and spiritual depth, that touched me deeply."

While music remains a mystery, Lois Marshall's singing has brought audiences all over the world into musical unity and celebration. Her unique spiritual empathy with the artist's vision has allowed listeners to experience the music of the great composers in the way they intended it to be heard. Her impeccable musicianship and deep understanding of the music earned her the respect and admiration of the finest conductors of the 20th century. "Brava, Bravissima." (Arturo Toscanini)



Author:Raymond Vacchino M.Mus.(MT) A.Mus. L.R.S.M. Licentiate (hon.)"