Recital

26  January 1993
Crush Bar, Royal Opera House, London

Simon Keenlyside
Malcolm Martineau

 

Programme

Schubert

Waldesnacht

Die Einsiedelei

Der Einsame

Freiwilliges Versinken

Dem Unendlichen

Lied eines Schiffers an die Dioskuren

Die Götter Griechenlands

Gruppe aus dem Tartarus

Duparc  

Chanson Triste

Le Manoir de Rosamonde

Phidylé

Poulenc 

La maitresse volage

Chanson à boire

Madrigal

Invocation aux parques

L’offrande

La belle jeunesse

Serenade

 

 

What the critics say

Adrian Jack, The Independent, Friday, 29 January 1993

What comes naturally: Adrian Jack on the tenor [sic] Simon Keenlyside and the pianist Malcolm Martineau

Simon Keenlyside’s lunchtime recital at the Royal Opera House on Tuesday began with a group of Schubert songs lasting no less than 35 minutes. Beginning with Waldesnacht and ending with Gruppe aus dem Tartarus, they altogether avoided the subject of love in favour of themes to do with Nature, solitude and Romantic notions of the infinite and sublime, showing Schubert in grand, expansive mood, the forerunner of Wagner.

Without a text to follow in Waldesnacht, the philistine question occurred how anyone could find so many words to describe the creative inspiration of Nature. Yet the sustained force of this very long song is hugely impressive and it plunged this fine tenor in at the deep end, not to mention his hapless accompanist, Malcolm Martineau, who had to submit his tremolandi for our approval on a not very marvellous piano in an uncomfortably cosy acoustic.

Keenlyside’s voice is warm and mellow, and he uses it with all the refinement and discipline of a young singer not yet jaded by the rigours of a high-powered career (though he already has considerable experience in opera and recitals). He sustains the longest lines without strain and phrases with complete suppleness; his sound seems to be infinitely malleable. In Schiller’s lament for a vanished world of Classical antiquity, his distant yet intensely yearning tone was exquisite. Yet it was a relief after all this idealism to relax to the sensuous charm of Duparc’s Chanson triste. Some of Poulenc’s Chansons gaillardes showed that he can be nimble and incisive too.

Keenlyside is an unusually modest, self-effacing singer, yet does not want powers of characterisation. What distinguishes his style of performance is its objective focus. He made no bones about Poulenc’s rudest songs – no nudging or winking, though his scorn of a girl’s small breasts was as insulting as you like, and a virgin’s small cry of shock at a god’s improper suggestion (about the possible use of a candle for want of a lover) was understated to perfection.

CORRECTION

Last week Simon Keenlyside was incorrectly described as a tenor. He is, of course, a baritone.