Chor und Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks / Bernard Haitink BEETHOVEN Symphonie Nr. 9

A recording of Ludwig van Beethoven’s “Ninth” is always a great event, especially because the symphony’s final chorus, Schiller’s “Ode to Joy”, is understood around the world as a plea for peace and international understanding. It was no coincidence that the catchy melody to the text “Joy, beautiful spark of divinity” was chosen as the Hymn of the European Union. This recording of Beethoven’s great choral symphony under the direction of Bernard Haitink and with excellent instrumental and vocal soloists is not only an outstanding interpretation of the work but also very much an event in itself – because these recordings document Haitink’s last ever concerts with the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks. Only a few months after his two Munich concerts on February 21 and 22, 2019, the great Dutch conductor – who celebrated his 90^th birthday on March 4 – announced the end of his career.

The two Munich concert events at the beginning of the year featured the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks and the Bavarian Radio Chorus, two ensembles with whom Bernard Haitink has been closely associated for many decades now, and they were joined by the excellent soloists Sally Matthews, Gerhild Romberger, Mark Padmore and Gerald Finley.

In an interview with the Dutch newspaper “De Volkskrant” on June 12 this year, Bernard Haitink announced his imminent departure from the conductor’s podium. On June 15, he conducted for the last time at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, and his very last concert of all took place in Lucerne on September 6. “I’m ninety years old,” explained the maestro, “and it’s a fact that I’m not going to conduct any longer. And once I’ve stopped, I don’t think I’ll be able to conduct again.” Haitink’s decision marks the end of a conducting career spanning 65 years. He has been a regular and highly welcome guest of the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, and numerous CDs on the BR-KLASSIK label document the exceptional quality of this creative collaboration.

Mark Padmore / Nicholas Daniel / Britten Sinfonia RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS - JONATHAN DOVE - PETER WARLOCK

Tenor Mark Padmore is joined by members of Britten Sinfonia in 3 quintessential British song-cycles: Ralph Vaughan Williams' "On Wenlock Edge" (with pianist Huw Watkins), "Ten Blake Songs" (with oboist Nicholas Daniel) and Peter Warlock's best-known work, "The Curlew". "The End" by Jonathan Dove (a co-commission by Britten Sinfonia and Wigmore Hall with support from the Tenner-for-a-Tenor campaign) receives its world première recording here

Mark Padmore / Paul Lewis SCHUBERT Winterreise

Ah, this journey! How many have made it, sincerely and imaginatively, two setting out as nearly as possible as one! So many on records too, following the elusive track as with torchlight concentrated upon it. Yet, of all, I cannot think of one (not even Fischer-Dieskau in his 1965 recording with Jörg Demus) that leads more faithfully to the cold comfort of its end. And when we get there in this performance, what an end it is!

The journey begins with ever such a slight whine high in the voice, as with a calm acceptance of pain. The piano abstains from jabbing sforzandi to underline what the chords make plain enough, instead insisting calmly on its left-hand legato. The melting major-key modulation is all affection: no hint of bitterness in the sentiment that his passing footsteps should not disturb the faithless beloved’s sleep. But outside in the open, stillness and turbulence alternate like the moods of the weather-vane. And so throughout much of the trek the self-confiding of the loner holds in check the utterance of emotion as the icy surface of the river conceals the running water beneath. Even so the pain will out, as it does in the last phrase, “ihr Bild dahin”, of “Erstarrung”.

On we go, lulled and tormented by the magic music-box of “Frühlingstraum”, till the tragic chord before “so elend nicht” in “Einsamkeit” brings a dreadful reality into focus. The deceptive sweetness of “Die Krähe”, the giddy disorientation of “Letzte Hoffnung”, the subdued feverish excitements of “Täuschung” find an almost holy stability in “Das Wirtshaus”, but still the external world exists, felt as almost an intrusion in “Mut”. And soon we meet the organ-grinder. And his secrets must on no account be revealed by reviewer or arts-gossip. And the listener must wait, out of respect to this marvellous partnership of Mark Padmore and Paul Lewis, until time can be taken for it, alone and uninterrupted, to accompany them on the journey through to its unearthly end. (John Steane/ Gramophone)

Mark Padmore / Kristian Bezuidenhout SCHUBERT Winterreise

Only a few months after Florian Boesch’s second recording of Schubert’s great wintry song-cycle (Hyperion, A/17), here’s a second bite at the bitter cherry from another singer, albeit a very different one. With Mark Padmore at least there’s been a longer intervening period: it’s nine years since the release of his previous Winterreise, a 2010 Gramophone Award-winner, also on Harmonia Mundi. And there’s a major difference here, too, in that not only is Paul Lewis replaced by Kristian Bezuidenhout but a modern concert grand is switched for a Graf fortepiano.

As with the earlier recording, there’s a wealth of interest to be found at the keyboard. Here the instrument itself is beautifully mellow, with an especially tender con sordini sound as well as some brightness in the tone when required – not often, admittedly, in this most subdued of cycles. I love the hazy twang Bezuidenhout produces at the start of ‘Der Lindenbaum’, the wild clanging of the ‘Wetterfahne’ and the real sense he gives in ‘Die Krähe’ of the bird swirling ominously about. The melody of ‘Frühlingstraum’ is imbued with so much hope, that of ‘Der Leiermann’ with so little, its opening drone, played much as Lewis plays it, resembling less notes than just a pained, numb sound.

Bezuidenhout spreads his chords occasionally and offers a light sprinkling of ornaments, as does Padmore. And in the later stages of the cycle, in particular, the tenor offers singing of remarkable patience, control and concentration (listen to how he builds up ‘Das Wirtshaus’). The final songs are moving, and Padmore’s intelligence and seriousness are never in doubt, his interpretation always probing.

One notices, however, that the voice has lost some juice: he struggles to offer warmth to counter the blanched tone he employs elsewhere, while the lower register is underpowered. His German, too, is strangely affected, with vowels self-consciously opened up and consonants over-deliberate. The earlier recording, five minutes slower, features many of the same interpretative touches and characteristics, but they are more worrying here, less convincing. Matters are not helped, either, by engineering that places the voice in a strange quasi-ecclesiastical halo.

Padmore’s fans will no doubt snap his new recording up, but I’d otherwise recommend sticking with the earlier one, featuring Lewis’s warm, deeply human contribution at the keyboard. And if fortepiano’s what you need, head to Christoph Prégardien and Andreas Staier for something altogether more grounded, satisfying and idiomatic. (Hugo Shirley / Gramophone)

Mark Padmore / Britten Sinfonia / Jacqueline Shave BENJAMIN BRITTEN Serenade for Tenor, Horn & Strings - Nocturne GERALD FINZI Dies Natalis

Tenor Mark Padmore has an ideal voice for these two Britten song cycles written for Peter Pears. He has the kind of musical sensitivity and attentiveness to textual subtleties that characterized Pears' singing. His voice is essentially light in the way that Pears' was, but his is infinitely more attractive. Its tone is clear and pure, with none of Pears' nasal quality, and can be sweet without sounding precious. Padmore's technique seems absolutely secure and while his instrument is not large, he can produce an impressive range of dynamics. He and horn player Stephen Bell deliver a terrific performance of the Serenade for tenor, horn, and strings, and Jacqueline Shave's leadership of the Britten Sinfonietta is energetic and nuanced. Padmore's phrasing is shapely and expressive and he can spin out the seamless legato most of these songs require. In "Hymn," he and Bell sing and play with nimble fleetness that seems thrillingly close to the edge of spinning out of control but that ultimately lands safely. The performance of "Dirge" is charged with darker-than-usual sinister energy; the running string figures that follow the canon seem here more like a demonic dance than a dirge, to wonderful, scary effect. There is no lack of topnotch recordings of the Serenade, but this is a version that anyone who loves the piece will want to hear. In Nocturne, Padmore again excels in bringing intelligent and sensitive, sometimes soaring musicality to the songs. Finzi's cycle Dies Natalis is something of a novelty, but it fits well with the Britten. His harmonic language is eloquently post-Romantic, solidly in the English pastoral tradition, and his text setting relatively conventional, but the cycle is a lovely, lyrical, entirely successful exemplar of that tradition. Serenade, written about five years after Dies Natalis, demonstrates by contrast the daring individuality of Britten's handling of texts and the rich originality of his melodic gift. The sound of Harmonia Mundi's SACD is immaculate and detailed, with a gripping sense of presence. (Stephen Eddins)

Tamara Stefanovich / Mark Padmore / Thomas Larcher THOMAS LARCHER What Becomes

A Padmore Cycle, Thomas Larcher's songs written in 2011 for tenor Mark Padmore, sets poems by Hans Aschenwald and Alois Hotschnig. The gnomic texts sometimes seem to occupy similar territory to those of Schubert's great song cycles. But if Larcher's settings, which are beautifully tailored to the colour, clarity and expressive strengths of Padmore's voice, evoke any specific 19th-century song composer it is Schumann.

Larcher accompanies the songs himself, but he entrusts three of his solo-piano works to Tamara Stefanovich. None of the Poems, "12 pieces for pianists and other children", lasts more than three minutes. As with the seven longer numbers of What Becomes, they range between winsomeness and nagging obsessiveness, although Stefanovich plays both sets with tremendous gusto. She finds a bit more in the prepared piano writing of Smart Dust , but even here there is a nagging sense that Larcher's music rarely amounts to anything more than the sum of its parts. (Andrew Clements / The Guardian)

Mark Padmore / Kristian Bezuidenhout SCHUMANN Dichterliebe - Liederkreis op. 24

Mark Padmore (b.1961) started his musical activities as a clarinetist and singer. During the early 1980s he sang with The Sixteen and the Hilliard Ensemble. With the Hilliards he can be heard on ‘Perotinus’, an ECM album that has meanwhile achieved legendary status. In the 1990s he worked as a soloist with William Christie, Philippe Herreweghe and John Eliot Gardiner, and was much sought after as the Evangelist in the Passions of Johann Sebastian Bach. In 2002 he appeared for the first time in a lieder recital, singing Schubert’s ‘Die Schöne Müllerin’. His accompanist, Roger Vignoles, encouraged him to concentrate on the lied repertoire, and as a result, Padmore now spends a large amount of his time on the recital podium. He performs with seasoned accompanists: Julius Drake, Graham Johnson and Malcolm Martineau, and has also forged performing relationships with famous pianists: Imogen Cooper, Till Fellner and Paul Lewis. The latter accompanied him in very successful recordings of Schubert’s great song-cycles, ‘Die Winterreise’ and ‘Die Schöne Müllerin’.
For his most recent recital tour Padmore opted for a collaboration with fortepianist Kristian Bezuidenhout, an artist who was invited by Harmonia Mundi to record Mozart’s complete solo piano music. Padmore dedicated his tour to the poet Heinrich Heine, who was a fount of inspiration for Franz Schubert. Robert Schumann visited Vienna in 1838, ten years after Schubert’s death, and became acquainted with the older composer’s Ninth Symphony and the song cycles ‘Winterreise’, ‘Müllerin’ and ‘Schwanengesang’. Despite the fact that Schumann initially looked down on the Lied phenomenon, but in 1840, just married to Clara, in his new role as family man felt obliged to provide a more substantial income. Considering the popularity of the lied genre with the middle class in those days, publishing songs was a logical way to bolster his wages. Schumann’s preference for Heinrich Heine was no coincidence. Heine’s ‘Das Buch der Lieder’, published in 1820, enjoyed an immense popularity and inspired nineteenth-century composers to write no less than 8000 songs. On this CD five of those are placed between Schumann’s opp. 24 and 48. They were selected from the volume ‘Sängerfahrt’ by Franz Paul Lachner (1803-1890). During the last two years of Schubert’s life Lachner befriended Schubert, who was six years his senior. Lachner’s music pays homage to Schubert, and some of his settings employ texts that were also set by Schubert and Schumann. On this recital they are ‘Im Mai’, the opening song of ‘Dichterliebe’ (‘Im wunderschönen Monat Mai’), and ‘Das Fischermädchen’, also known in a setting by Schubert. They are a resounding testimony to the difference between talent and genius. (Siebe Riedstra)

Mark Padmore / Kristian Bezuidenhout BEETHOVEN An die ferne Geliebte Op. 98 - HAYDN Songs - MOZART Masonic Cantata K. 619

Following up on their acclaimed recording of Schumann's Dichterliebe and Liederkreis, tenor Mark Padmore and fortepianist Kristian Bezuidenhout join forces once again for a varied and appealing lieder recital of songs by Beethoven, Haydn, and Mozart. Works featured here include Beethoven's An die ferne Geliebte, Mozart's Masonic Cantata and selections from Haydn's English Songs.

Don't assume that the British tenor Mark Padmore is an opera lightweight from the ethereal sound and almost choirboy purity of his voice...he can sing with penetrating intensity...his is an intimate tenor voice, ideally suited to the Evangelist in Bachs St. Matthew Passion, and, as this new recording again demonstrates, the lieder repertory...This is eloquent lieder singing driven by astute and sensitive attention to the texts. (The New York Times)

 The songs are thoughtful and the interpretations deeply considered. Tenor Mark Padmore sidles in with an artless tone and only gradually unfurls the fronds of his full voice across the Haydn rarities that open this recital...An die ferne Geliebte finds fortepianist Kristian Bezuidenhout on inspired form: his transitions between songs are seamless, the extended lead-in to Es kehret der Maien notably elegant. (Sinfini Music)