Few singers communicate the powerful marriage of words and music like tenor Mark Padmore. Whether he’s singing a Bach passion set to Picander’s poetry, channeling the religious ecstasy of John Donne in Britten’s Holy Sonnets, or exploring the twists and turns of Wilhelm Müller’s psychologically complex poetry in Schubert’s Winterreise, Mark Padmore is a riveting performer.
His discography is extensive. Padmore has worked with some of the world’s leading conductors, including Sir Colin Davis, Richard Hickox, John Eliot Gardiner, Philippe Herreweghe and Harry Christophers on critically lauded recordings of cantatas, oratorios and operas. Padmore is also one of the great lieder singers. His recent recordings of Schumann’s Dichterliebe (with pianist Kristian Bezuidenhout) and Schubert’s lieder cycles Die schöne Mullerin and Winterreise (with pianist Paul Lewis) are revelations. Each cycle unfolds like a superbly crafted mini-drama that’s irresistible. Padmore and Lewis complete their Schubert triptych with this eagerly anticipated new recording of the composer’s Schwanengesang.
The songs that Franz Schubert wrote at the end of his life while living with his brother on the outskirts of Vienna reflect the sorrows and disappointments of a composer who felt that “his most brilliant hopes had come to nothing.” Schubert didn’t envision the songs as a unified cycle. Schwanengesang came into existence when, after the composer’s death, the publisher Tobias Haslinger acquired a notebook from Schubert’s brother that contained settings of poems by Ludwig Rellstab, Heinrich Heine and Johann Gabriel Seidl. Haslinger turned the composer’s death into a marketing opportunity; he named the collection Schwanengesang (“Swan song”) and published it with great success.
In addition to Schwanengesang, Padmore and Lewis are joined by Richard Watkins on horn in Schubert’s Auf dem Storm, a song that was written to commemorate the first anniversary of Beethoven’s death.
by Craig Zeichner
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