This should have been a great disc, I loved Dylan Perez’s playing when he appeared with Nicky Spence at Thaxted, My Father’s Son, Baritone Julien Van Mellaerts and Perez appeared in Opera Holland Parks series Opera in Song to fine effect, so the ingredients are all there.
Dialogues presents baritone Julien Van Mellaerts and pianist Dylan Perez in a recital shaped as a continuous narrative, interweaving Schubert’s Schwanengesang with The Lake, a newly commissioned cycle by Errollyn Wallen. The intent is that Wallen’s songs frame and reshape Schubert’s, illuminating the familiar, with themes focusing on love, distance, memory and hope.
The first song of Errolyn Wallen’s The Lake has a Schubertian twist to it at “And all was still / And night made your skin shine white” (the text is her own). This is a fine song (I have not always warmed to Wallen, but here she is at her best). Hearing that next to Schubert’s “Liebesbotschaft” is of course interesting, but I wonder why the Schubert is rather underpowered? Van Mellaerts sings so beautifully, Perez’s playing is characteristically sensitive, but there is an underlying energy missing.
Order is fluid in Schwanengesang – its history allows it as it was conceived as such, as it lacks the linearity of Müllerin and Winterreise. “Fischermädchen,” the second song heard, is similarly seems somewhat disengaged; “Frúhlingssehnsucht” is more mobile, more alive.
“Kriegers Ahnung” suits Mellaerts and Perez better (translated here as “Warrior’s sense of foreboding”), and they follow the song’s trajectory so well. Perez’s playing is art itself, so carefully judged in terms of texture and chord weighting; Mellaerts seems finally to hit stride (Listen to the harmonic pain on the final “Gute Nacht”).
More Wallen: “Ready”. “Are you ready to be judged for your art?” is the first question. A single, high piano line opens, the vocal line more monotone. It is a beautiful text (“Are you ready to tear down the borders? / Now only murmur love”). The extended pause at the end of this song is perfect – out of which creeps the piano opening of the famous Schubert song, “Ständchen”. BUt, when it comes, it is just a touch under tempo though, a touch heavy.
Following that is Wallen’s “Timeless”. Wallens’s text considers issues that were central to the German Romantic poets: night, ocean, stars, souls, all focused on the lake oft he cycle’s title. It is a little anonymous musically in comparison to the earlier Wallen The Lake songs, though:.
And in fairness, the darkness of the opening of “Am Meer” fits perfectly after “Timeless”. But again, it is leaden. There is flow but it is not fully fluid; the performance’s finest moment is the arrival of the final stanza (“Seit jener Stunde” / Since that moment [my body has been decaying]).
One of Schubert’s finest songs follows “Der Atlas,” a good performance but as always in Schubert there is a weight of historical performances behind it. Perez is superb in both the weight f the opening and in the lower-range staccato of the contrast, but we are a long way from Hans Hotter and Gerald Moore:
Even “Abschied” sounds rather heavy and under-tempo; this suits “Aufenthalt” a little more, but there is still a rather dull feeling to the whole. The bare octaves of “Ihr Bild” do work, however.
The nervous piano gestures of “All my life,” introduce a story falling out of love with a city: London. The words “London is empty” do indeed weigh heavily
It is true that “In der Ferne” hangs low with world-weariness, but ,again, it is the Wallen that works best in “Courage,” the piano shining with nervous energy, the voice keen to find the answers to the many questions he poses. I wish this had closed the disc: Schubert’s “Der Doppelgänger,” for all of its appropriate weight, feels lacking in emotive clout.
If you’re looking for a more complete picture of the output of Errolyn Wallen, this will help. But there is a lot of Schubert out there, and this is not so competitive from that perspective.
Dialogues is available at Amazon here.
.jpg?w=160&resize=160,160&ssl=1 "Choral music is flourishing in Taiwan: composer Will Todd on his experiences collaborating with the Soochow University Alumni Choir in Taiwan")
