A Winter’s Journey in Strøget
anmeldelse
• David Hackett
Helligaandskirken Vinterfestival 2024
Franz Schubert: Die Winterreise
Martin Hatlo – Baritone
Ruben Munk - Piano
Thursday 22nd February
Helligaandskirken, Copenhagen
“A stranger I arrived, a stranger I go hence.” The existential words which open the poetic collection known as Die Winterreise, written by Wilhelm Muller (1794 – 1827) and famously set to music by Franz Schubert in 1827.
A sensitive young poet, rejected in love, walks out on a snowy winter’s night in search of emotional and psychological oblivion – and never comes back. This is the rather bleak departure point for Winterreise and nor do things get much better.
Yet the song cycle is not only about the pains of love. The central theme that emerges is very much of its time – that of the young Romantic artist, unable to fit into societal norms, at odds with the world and with himself.
Impoverished, unrecognized and slowly dying from syphilis, it is often how Schubert felt about himself. Perhaps it is why the work contains some of his best and most compelling music.
Arriving at Copenhagen’s Helligaandskirken (Church of the Holy Ghost) on a dark, wintry dusk for a performance of the work seemed somehow appropriate, even if a rather cheerless drizzle stood in for the hoped-for snowfall.
The interior of Helligaandskirken was both spacious and serious. Although notable for its elegant chandeliers, handsome mahogany panels and sea-green carpets, the overall impression was one of sparseness.
Yet something less minimalist might have felt out of step with the occasion. And the church’s airy dimensions lent it a wonderful acoustic, allowing for a depth of sound without ever becoming muddy.
A work of unsparing intensity, any performance of Winterreise requires considerable mental stamina. But in Norwegian baritone Martin Hatlo and pianist Ruben Munk (who is also the organist at Helligaandskirken) we had two performers more than equal to the task.
For long periods, the talented Hatlo appeared to sing well within himself, displaying meticulous attention to the texts and their ever-shifting emotions. At times, his tone was little more than a hushed whisper. But he always appeared to have plenty in reserve for the more dramatic moments, at which point he could show the full, impressive range of his vocal powers.
While Hatlo gave the narrative its dynamic lead, Munk showed little inclination to retreat into the background as a mere accompanist, firmly anchoring the mood of each song and creating a little orchestra of sound around his colleague. He was constantly alive to the various musical symbolisms in the piano part, whether evoking barking dogs, circling crows, whistling weathervanes or even the ever-present weary footsteps of the poet/narrator.
The 24 songs which make up Winterreise chart the lovesick young man’s flight from civilisation into unknown icy wastes. Along the way, he sings about both his inner and outward worlds – the bleak, frozen landscapes through which he stumbles, against the hot torrent of grief from within his soul.
Both musicians seemed to possess the necessary einfühlung to bring out not only the work’s overriding despondency, but also its ironic longings for an idolized past, such as in Der Lindenbaum (fondly recalling a romantic outing in May while battling a December blizzard) or in Frühlingstraum (delicious dreams of spring while sheltering in a dismal, snow-covered hut). And even as the poet’s mental state gradually deteriorates, he still cannot let go of his beautiful visions. In one of the very last songs, Das Wirtshaus, he mistakes a desolate graveyard for a welcoming inn.
Perhaps Muller and Schubert really were spiritual soulmates in sharing something once coined by the Moroccan writer, Mohamed Choukri: a “love of things that could not be.”
Hatlo and Munk’s stirring performance was the fourth in a series of five recitals held as part of the Helligaandskirken’s February Vinterfestival. The church also puts on splendid chamber and choral concerts the rest of the year round.
To read more from David Hackett, go to www.musicbytheyear.com