To the final concert of the Oxford Lieder Festival. My ninth
in the series ‒ a
mere sampling of the 109 events on offer over the past three weeks.
It’s been a magnificent achievement, including all of
Schubert’s 650-odd songs ‒
the first time this has been done in Britain. And not just concerts, but also
masterclasses, family events, study days, lecture-recitals, socials and so on.
It has been the brainchild of the excellent accompanist
Sholto Kynoch, who recruited the finest singers and pianists, old and young, organised
the whole thing into brilliantly-conceived programmes, recruited a band of
cheerful helpers, performed personally in many of the events, and was around
meeting and greeting throughout. What a stunning achievement.
My own special memories?
The young Swiss baritone baritone Manuel Walser singing
Schlegel settings and the even-younger Slovenian soprano Nika Gorič singing Schlechta; the
Swedish mezzo Maria Forsström
singing Schiller; Schubert’s Octet, brilliantly played by the Principals of the
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment; from the older generation, Sir Thomas
Allen singing Winterreise and the great Dutch bass Robert Holl singing
Mayrhofer settings.
And, in the final concert yesterday, the seventy-something
year old Sarah Walker, melting hearts with a superb all-female chorus in one of
Schubert’s Serenades, and the last thoughts of Schubert in the Heine settings
from Schwanengesang, sung with profound stillness by Jonathan Lemalu (above).
Lastly the intimate playing of clarinettist Mark van de Wiel in “The Shepherd
on the Rock”.
But… where were all the students in this great city of
learning? Just a fiver for them on the door. Conspicuous by their absence.
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