With Quasthoff on stage, beautiful music always ensues

By Janos Gereben
From The Register-Guard

THE FORTUNATE ONES who attended both Thomas Quasthoff's Oregon Bach Festival orchestral concert on July 2 and his recital last Saturday experienced blissful deja vu in many ways.

From the otherworldly calm acceptance of Bach's "Ich habe genug," which opened the earlier program in the Hult Center's Silva Concert Hall, there was a direct line to the last scheduled song in Beall Concert Hall: Richard Strauss' expression of absolute happiness in "Morgen."

In Quasthoff's interpretation, both times, there was that rare sense of the music continuing in the silence at the end, applause rudely breaking the hush, in which time appeared suspended.

On Saturday, Quasthoff remained in the prime form of earlier in the week, in a near-miraculous gestalt of flawless, transparent vocal production, direct communication with the audience, artistry of the highest kind.

Also present at both concerts, significantly, was Jeffrey Kahane, as the conductor July 2 and the piano accompanist on Saturday. Kahane was drafted 48 hours before the recital to replace Justus Zeyen, the singer's "permanent accom- panist," who slipped by a swimming pool and cracked his kneecap. Kahane stepped in and rescued the concert, which otherwise would have been canceled. To make do in a situation like this is commendable, but to play as brilliantly as Kahane did Saturday is something else, justifying Quasthoff's repeated and heartfelt acknowledgments.

Schubert's hourlong, wonderfully varied song cycle, "Schwanengesang," opened the sold-out concert (to be repeated this Saturday), immediately establishing that Kahane needed no allowance for the circumstances. As the bass sang about the "rushing brook," the sound of water cascaded from the piano, the "rushing torrent" came on thickly and "gently curling waves" played gently, all more affectingly than the real stuff had in the amplified bowls of Tan Dun's "Water Passion."

When the text described "darkling flicker of flames," Kahane's piano was on fire. An amazing moment occurred at the end of the second song, "Kriegers Ahnung," with the singer's "good night" trailing off, and then the piano's last note hanging in the air until silence became a reality.

Time and again in the Schubert songs, some of the great singers of our age could be heard in Quasthoff's voice - Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, most prominently - but with a crucial difference. "FiDi" and the others most of the time "sang" in a singerly manner, they and the audience aware of the occasion. With Quasthoff, the music pours out seemingly without effort or any artificiality. There is no question of breathing or technique, conscious phrasing or careful diction; it's all natural and transparent, providing the music alone, pure and simple.

This "techniqueless singing" became even more impressive in four difficult Hugo Wolf "Mörike Lieder," with their dissonance and chromaticism. Without the slightest hesitation, and staying easily, elegantly on pitch, Quasthoff dispatched the four songs, apparently enjoying their challenge.

Four gorgeous Richard Strauss songs closed the program, "Heimliche Aufforderung" and "Die Nacht" coming before that sublime "Morgen." One song, "Zueignung," which most lieder devotees still hear in Elisabeth Schwarzkopf's rich and perhaps "overdone" interpretation, sounded too quick and plain, at least for a Schwarzkopf loyalist. Singer and pianist performed the song with what seemed to be deliberately minimal legato.

Two encores closed the evening: "Röslein" and "Danny Boy." The first was wonderfully elegant; the latter, the tear-jerker, was sung (and played) "straight" and yet resulted in wet eyes all over the place. Zeyen was missed, but Kahane played admirably; he and Quasthoff both served the music brilliantly.

Janos Gereben is arts editor of Post Newspapers and a reviewer and music news columnist for San Francisco Classical Voice (www.sfcv.org). He can be reached at janos451@earthlink.net.