Search - Simon Keenlyside :: Schumann: Dichterliebe,Brahms:Lieder

A natural-born lieder singer at the top of his form

Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 11/04/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"British baritone Simon Keenlyside hasn't lacked for first-rate recording opportunities, including Don Giovanni under Abbado on DG, and his portrayal of Billy Budd in Britten's opera leads a crowded pack. But this eminently musical singer hasn't become a star in the U.S. greatly as he's admired in Europe. Sony has given Keenlyside a contract, but I felt lukewarm about his duet album of Viennese operetta with his frequent partner, Angelika Kirchschlater. Will an audience flock to a lieder album that features a raft of Brahms songs and the evergreen Dichterliebe of Schumann? Certainly the musical values are strong. Accompanist Malcolm Martineau can hardly be bettered on the current scene, and although the recorded piano sound is too distant and echoey, the colorations in the singer's voice are well captured.



I thoroughly enjoyed everything here. It's rare to hear a male singer who is willing to sound so sensitive, even to the point of tremulousness. Keenlyside wants to touch our hearts, and although German lieder isn't a natural vehicle for that purpose, so far as general listeners are concerned, he's very successful. The Brahms songs bear no trace of over-earnestness; they often sound quite fresh. Thomas Hampson has a more glamorous voice but sounds more contrived in this material. Keenlyside has no interest in coming across as a star. Such unaffected sincerity, combined with passionate delivery, makes his Dichterliebe better than Hampson's, or almost anyone else's in the recent past.



As he's matured, Keenlyside's baritone, although not immediately recognizable, has become strong and secure -- he can make it do anything he wants, especially in songs ranging across many cultures. His German is convincing, and he's attentive to the texts. In all, I'd favorably match him with another impeccable British singer, Thomas Allen, and like Allen, Keenlyside promises to fill many roles in opera and the recital stage. A singer with a modest profile scores a quiet triumph here."

Definitive Dichterliebe

D. Lee Edwards | Los Angeles, CA USA | 02/12/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I'm hard-pressed to decide which performance of Schumann's Dichterliebe song cycle I like better between this one with baritone Simon Keenlyside and pianist Malcolm Martineau and the recent one by Canadian baritone Gerald Finley with Julius Drake at the piano. There's a certain raw emotional honesty in Finley's singing, although his German diction to my ears doesn't have quite the subtlety of Keenlyside's. But I'll leave that judgment to a native German. For sheer beauty of voice and sensitivity of interpretation, Mr. Keenlyside can't be beat. The pianists Martineau and Drake are among the very best and offer masterful interpretation of these lieder. They remind me of their predecessor, the great accompanist Gerald Moore in his prime. There's something about Keenlyside, the artist, who just moves me more than any other baritone. It's his intelligence, his emotional commitment to the meaning of the text, his sensitivity to nuance and mood. I have enjoyed Keenlyside's recordings of Strauss and Schubert lieder but what a pleasure to hear his voice in this new recording which catches his voice in full maturity. There is a bit more power to it now and his singing career is in its absolute prime. The recording has spirit and vigor. The tempi are all alive and moving without feeling rushed. By contrast, the hyperion recording of Dichterliebe (from ten years ago) with baritone Christopher Maltman and pianist Graham Johnson sounds overly careful, anemic, and somewhat lethargic. Keenlyside sounds like the poet of Heine's texts: impulsive, passionate, fully alive and very moving."

Simon Keenlyside Brahms/Schumann CD

John Palik | Iowa City, IA United States | 03/09/2010

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Schumann: Dichterliebe,Brahms:Lieder

Mr. Keenlyside is perhaps best known for his outstanding operatic portrayals in Hamlet, Billy Budd, Don Giovanni, Marriage of Figaro, Pelleas, etc., but his voice really shines in the Lieder recital. Here he spreads his honeyed legato baritone over some too seldom heard Brahms songs, as well as the Schumann Dichterliebe. While the overall sonic picture may not be quite as favorable as in his live recital performances (as reflected to perfection in his Wigmore Hall CD), here is a masterful rendition of some high points in the German song repertoire, with the Dichterliebe delivered in one unbroken dramatic arc."