Review of Roderick Williams, baritone, and Helmut Deutsch, piano, at Perth Concert Hall

Mar 1 2011 Perthshire Advertiser Tuesday

AMONGST the incredible cultural avalanche of concerts in Perth in February, Wednesday night’s Lieder Concert in Perth Concert Hall must rate as one of the peaks.

In the two artists Roderick Williams, baritone, and Helmut Deutsch, piano, they had not only a singer of the very finest quality but a pianist whose deep thought brings out the most in the music.

Both have great track records, even in Perth: Helmut Deutsch for his perceptive playing at the most recent Perth Schubertiad and Roderick Williams as recently as his Mahler song cycle with the Hallé.

Lieder may be a rarified field and the works presented may not have been amongst the most obvious, yet it is no exaggeration to say that each one came over as a perfectly presented absolute gem.

They began with a group of six from Wolf’s Italian Song Book. They were all love songs of varied character, the first starting with the power of the voice of God with the point in the final line of God ‘created beauty and your face’. Wolf’s songs are special in that whereas often a song is the vocal line and an accompaniment in his songs this union is total and symbiotic. This reached a high point in the indissoluble unity of ‘Und willst du deinen Liebsten sterben sehen’ where the art of both singer and pianist, the vocal and the instrumental line melded together to something greater than the parts.

With the Korngold Songs of Farewell the pair revealed a more opulent Romantic world. These moved from anger to serenity with questions as to who will miss whom more.

The group of Mahler songs from Des Knaben Wunderhorn began with ‘How to make naughty children well behaved’ and this artfully set nursery rhyme made the audience chuckle in appreciation. Repeated notes from the piano brought out the drama in Remembrance. ‘I went with pleasure’ echoed the nature of his First Symphony and ‘Out! Out!’ showed Mahler’s humorous irony in one of the first of his soldier’s songs.

Schumann’s 12 poems of Justinus Kerner again demonstrated the completeness of Roderick Williams’ and Helmut Deutsch’s partnership.

Romantic storm, German Nature Love, nostalgia and doubt came so vividly into being that the audience sat spellbound for several seconds after the final song, before the thoroughly earned tremendous applause called the two artists back to the platform many times.

Ian Stuart-Hunter