Search - Franz [Vienna] Schubert, Malcolm Martineau, Michael Schade :: Schubert: Die schöne Müllerin

A Treasurable 'Schöne Müllerin' from Schade & Martineau

J Scott Morrison | Middlebury VT, USA | 08/23/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I have to be careful how often I listen to Schubert lieder because those melodies worm their way into my mind's ear and won't let go for days. Such has been case with this wonderful new recording of Schubert's 'Die Schöne Müllerin' with the young German-Canadian tenor, Michael Schade, and his fine accompanist, Malcolm Martineau. The recording follows their having presented the song cycle all over the world, including at the Salzburg Festival in 2003. This is a performance that deserves to be counted among the best currently available.



Michael Schade, born in Switzerland, raised in Gelsenkirchen and then, from age twelve, in Toronto, is in his mid-thirties and is primarily known for his appearances in Mozart operas. For many he is the current Mozart tenor of choice. He possesses an alluring voice, with a true legato, obvious dramatic abilities, a caressing lyrical pianissimo but with a wide dynamic range and a fine musical intelligence. He has recorded widely and has appeared at all the major opera houses. He has been partnered frequently by Malcolm Martineau, the Scots collaborative pianist who has worked with the likes of Thomas Hampson, Barbara Bonney, Dame Janet Baker, Dame Felicity Lott, Bryn Terfel and Simon Keenlyside among others. Together they give us a 'Schöne Müllerin' that makes one sit up and take notice. This is not a simple run-through of this much-loved song cycle, but one that has been thoroughly thought through and is presented with dynamism, subtlety and fire. Schade is able to limn all the psychological changes portrayed in Wilhelm Müller's 1821 poem cycle about a young man's ill-fated love for the miller's beautiful daughter.



Probably the most startlingly effective song here is the dramatically impetuous 'Ungeduld' ('Impatience'), taken at the fastest clip I've ever heard for this song. First, there is Martineau's complete control of those extraordinarily fast triplet chords (probably as difficult as those famous triplets in the accompaniment of 'Der Erlkönig') which are matched by Schade's headlong singing of these verses which urgently proclaim the song's title. Just listen to the ease with which he sings the awkward coloratura phrase-ends in the final line of each strophe -- 'Dein is mein Herz und soll es ewig bleiben.' ('My heart is yours and shall always be so.') And this is then followed immediately by Song VIII, 'Morgengruss' ('Morning Greeting') with the tenderest, loveliest lyricism. The inevitable dramatic arc of the cycle ends with the last three songs. XVIII, 'Trockne Blumen' ('Withered Flowers') has the weary, regretful tone of the suicidal spurned lover ('Tränen machen nicht maiengrün' ['Tears will not bring back May's greenness']) followed by XIX and XX where the miller and the stream (Bächlein) sing of the young man's rebirth in death, a quintessential notion of the Romantic era. Schade manages the hollow, resigned voice of the miller and the soothing voice of the Bächlein with equal effectiveness. 'Gute Ruh, gute Ruh! Tu die Augen zu!' ('Rest well, rest well! Close your eyes!')



Over the years my favorite versions of 'Die Schöne Müllerin' have been those of baritones -- especially Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Gérard Souzay -- but there is something to be said for the cycle being sung by a tenor, who can more easily sound like a naïve young man in the throes of a fateful love. In that category my favorite has been that of Peter Schreier, but Schade's artistry is easily his equal, and his voice is more innately alluring. This version is one that will undoubtedly become a treasure for lovers of Schubert. May we hope, perhaps in a few years, for a Schade-Martineau 'Winterreise'?



Scott Morrison"

HELDENMUELLER

DAVID BRYSON | Glossop Derbyshire England | 09/09/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This young tenor has a big voice, the kind of voice that could handle Wagner and I notice that he has already been cast as David in The Mastersingers. It is a voice with a fine tone (which I could not really say for Schreier) and as well as a thrilling ring on the occasional high sequences he gives us some startlingly full-toned low notes in Der Jaeger. Technically everything is in place too, the musicianship is meticulous, the enthusiasm and commitment manifest and the quality of the recorded sound exemplary.



Not bad to be going on with. Furthermore there is real understanding here not just of Schubert's idiom in general but of the very special tone of this song-cycle in particular. The poems are `innocent' in a way, but the emotions of the spurned lover, however stylised and artificial in some senses, are emotions that are basic, simple to understand and identify with, and powerful. They are also emotions that music is very good at portraying and amplifying, especially when the composer for all his seeming straightforwardness had perhaps the greatest lyric endowment any musician ever had. What it all finally comes down to, so far as I'm concerned, is just how suited you think this particular voice is to these particular songs. I suspect I would have had no problem in the slightest if I had not happened to own an LP from 1973 of this cycle performed by the Partridges. I have thought for many years that the family duo are a preternaturally perfect match for these songs, and after listening to Schade and Martineau I find the impression remains. By comparison Schade is just a touch formidable as the miller - I would almost have expected him to give the huntsman a black eye and gaps in his front teeth rather than to accept his fate so meekly as the story has him doing. Something in the style of the accompaniment reinforces this feeling too. If I say that Martineau errs sometimes slightly on the side of dryness, let me be as clear as I can be that I think this a good fault, and speeds are very sensible if noticeably slower and less bubbling than from the Partridges in the more vigorous numbers - even Ungeduld is actually taken slightly slower than the Partridges take it. When performers can get the wavelength of these songs the songs express themselves, and an over-anxious pursuit of `expression' is the ruination, in my own opinion, of the Winterreise as given by Schreier and Richter. Martineau uses the sustaining pedal very sparingly, which is as I like things done, and the dry-as-dust chords in the first part of Trockne Blumen are extremely effective to my ears. Where he is not as eloquent as he might be is at the start of Pause, and I felt this even before I had reminded myself how Jennifer Partridge does that, and I felt it more so still after.



From my point of view these particular characteristics very slightly spoil my own two highspots in the entire 20 songs. In the last stanza of Trockne Blumen the music almost suggests sap (or blood) starting to circulate again, and the final crescendo is capable of being one of the most pathetic and affecting things in all 19th century music. However what the effect crucially depends on is reducing the volume in the second of the three statements of Dann Bluemlein alle, after which a sword will go through you when a competent singer produces a strong swell on the third and final. This is not only how Partridge does it, it's how I recall it being done in a set of variations for flute that Schubert put together later. Schade keeps the volume going and the pathos is largely lost. Above all he and Martineau are no match whatsoever for Ian and Jennifer Partridge in the last song of all - it has no real sense of being a finale, they just stop singing and playing when it ends.



For all that I'm going to give the disc 5 stars by the skin of its teeth. By any criteria this is a fine performance, and this is a singer a lot more is going to be heard from and about. It's more by luck than by anything else that I happen to be familiar with an even higher standard."