EIF: Anne Sofie von Otter
Queen’s Hall - 10/08/22
Anne Sofie von Otter is known for expanding her classical repertoire in her later years to include jazz and other contemporary music. Here, an elegant 67-year old, she presented an intriguing mixture of Schubert and Rufus Wainwright. Schubert’s great String Quartet in D Minor D810, ‘Death and the Maiden’, brilliantly played by Quatuor van Kuijk, interspersed with four Schubert Lieder sung by von Otter, accompanied by Christoph Berner: ‘Der Tod und das Mädchen’, followed by ‘Der Wegweiser’, ‘Die Nebensonnen’ and ‘Einsamkeit’, all from ‘Winterreise’.
All this classical weight is surrounded by seemingly ‘lighter’ performances of material by Rufus Wainwright. The concert opens with a first performance of ‘Trois Valse Anglaises’, written in 2021 and dedicated to von Otter, and ends with three songs from ‘All Days are Nights: Songs for Lulu’, Wainwright’s album, written “in mourning for my mother while she was still alive” (quoted in David Kettle’s programme notes on Wainwright). These songs are vivid, expressive, usually delicate, but full of emotion, full of sorrow. As for instance in the first song ‘Watching the Monarchs come in’, where voice and piano represent the fluttering of the Monarch butterflies’ wings, and also shockingly the agony of the butterfly’s brief pain, ‘the pin prick that death brings.’
Indeed the theme of death runs through nearly all of this concert. Von Otter faces it and interprets it with dignity and fortitude, and not a hint of sentimentality. Indeed if we were in any doubt, the theme is underlined by the choice of encore: Schubert’s only arrangement for spoken word, ‘Abschied von der Erde’ (Farewell to the Earth), with its message of sorrow and consolation. If the unusual mixing of Schubert and Wainwright, as well as the slightly controversial interspersing of the Schubert string quartet with Schubert Lieder, are part of a wider strategy to manage the much loved soprano’s aging voice, then we should applaud it and be grateful. Von Otter’s voice remains authoritative – controlled, melodic, wonderfully expressive, no vocal pyrotechnics, but employing passion and volume when needed.
The concert was one of the best attended of this year’s Festival and was warmly received by the audience.
Cover photo: Andrew Perry
