EIF: Thomas Quasthoff Quartet

An artistic misjudgement.

This was the view of a distinguished audience member who I gave a lift to after the Thomas Quasthoff concert on Tuesday night. It was a diplomatic critique, others I spoke to were rather more trenchant in their criticism. Firstly let me declare an interest: I have been a big fan of Thomas Quasthoff ever since his first Festival concert back in 1993. I have several of his CDs and his rendition of Bach’s ‘Ich habe genug’ is among my favourites. Over a career which began when he was 15 (and he revealed he is planning his 50th anniversary concert in 2024), he became an international star of the classical music concert circuit and several notable opera roles. So it was with some sadness that I read in 2012 that he was giving up his classical career, I presumed that maybe his disability was catching up with him (he was born a thalidomide victim), but his wonderful voice transcended his disabilities, However after a period of rest he reinvented himself as a jazz singer and this was what we were looking forward to tonight with his jazz quartet. Now I’m a jazz lover as well as a classical, opera and folk fan and ironically driving on my way to the concert I listened to tributes to Charlie Watts the Rolling Stones drummer who died yesterday. Charlie Watt’s first love was jazz and we heard an extract from his jazz quartet. How synchronistic! I thought here we have someone else who has shifted their musical form. Sadly, I have to say Thomas Quasthoff for me hasn’t made the same successful shift in musical forms.  

It was a full house in the big tent on a sunny Tuesday evening (though it quickly became cold later) and, in suitable jazz style, it was five minutes late in starting. It was 7.35pm when Thomas Quasthoff and his Quartet came on the stage. He was very ably assisted by Simon Oslender piano, Dieter Ilg bass and Wolfgang Haffner percussion; they are highly talented musicians both as accompanists and in two instrumental numbers during the evening. Thomas greeted us warmly and thanked so many for coming and promised an hour and a half of pleasure. Sadly for me it was more of an evening of pain than pleasure. He opened with his version of ‘I’ll be your baby tonight’, originally a Bob Dylan song in his country music period, but covered by many people since, notably by Robert Palmer. However his big bass baritone voice didn’t seem to know what kind of style it was following but rolled around the lyrics, often drowning them with the richness of his voice but not necessarily following the tune. Well I thought jazz does allow, even encourage, differing interpretation of songs, but I was left with the question “Has Thomas got the swing?” This raised other questions which dominated my listening, as Thomas growled his way through various standards such as Hoagy Carmichael’s ‘Stardust’ Was he trying to be a jazz singer or a ballad crooner and was he succeeding at either? Can classical music singers successfully engage in crossover? That is to move from the classical or opera style to jazz or popular music? In my experience there are very few that make this transition successfully, and many who fail. My memory goes back to the documentary about making of ‘West Side Story’ when Lenny Bernstein tried to get Jose Carreras and Kiri Te Kanawa to record it. The result was less than successful. As the evening went on it was clear that Thomas still has a good voice, but for me he hasn’t captured the jazz or the crooner style successfully, and as for his SKAT singing attempt (singing without words), well it was just weird. As was his interpretation of John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’, which he tried to turn into a love song rather than the sermon for humanity it is. 

Now let me admit I seemed to be in a minority, as the audience applauded enthusiastically at the end of each number. But I wondered, were they applauding Thomas, the great classical singer, or how he has overcome his disability or were they just determined to have a good night out? I suspect that the majority of the audience were classical music enthusiasts who were warmly receiving a legend. For me the job of a critic is to be critical and for me Thomas didn’t succeed in making the crossover, but he did tell us a story that Simon Rattle has asked him to sing Schoenberg’s Gurre-Lieder in Carnegie Halls in 2024, and he has agreed, so we may yet get the great classical Thomas Quasthoff back. As for tonight’s concert, for me it didn’t succeed. The kindest judgement was from my companion back to town - “it was an artistic misjudgement”.