Schwetzingen / Hohenems

Still overwhelmed with emotions – so just a short review about the Verlaine program in Schwetzingen and Hohenems… 
Like published before in the forum: Philippe introduced a program presenting poems by Verlaine, set to music by different composers like Reynaldo Hahn, Gabriel Fauré, Joseph Szulc, André Caplet, Camille Saint-Saëns, Ernest Chausson etc.
I was lucky enough to meet Philippe before the concert and he told me that he was pretty nervous because of this new program – he said, that he isn`t sure to be prepared perfectly...
What a misjugdement!!!!!
Of course it was a perfect program and a perfect concert, Philippe being in a wonderful condition and performing in a diversified manner both very soulful tunes as well as for example those pretty full of verve, slightly shaking a leg with a flirtatious expresson on his face... the audience loved it!!!
He mastered the high tones and the low tones: during one of the the encores in Hohenems (“Colombine” by George Brassens) he changed from head voice to chest voice – the audience loved it, too, as well as his whistling at the end - never heard before!!! And don’t believe the Austrians to be slow and sedate, as they often used to be described – the applause was much stronger and enthusiastic than in Schwetzingen!!! That’s why Philippe gave us 3 encores (“only” 2 in Schwetzingen)!!!

Not to forget: the perfectly adapted piano-playing of Jérôme Ducros (intensive face-to face interaction with Philippe!), focused, lyrical, powerful – adjusted to the lyrics!

And Jérôme told us: They are going to record this programm on CD, being published maybe in April 2015! Looking forward to this!   

Thank You, Nenuphar!  Ouf!

mon 1650

welcome!!!

Nenuphar, thank you for your passionate description!
Looking forward to the CD.

Dear Nenuphar, thank you —
you had a good time:   Two concerts!!!     
I hope you had time to visit the beautiful garden in the castle of Schwetzingen. I love some pretty places there.

Let me,
thank you from all my heart for this wonderful surprise - the link to the long expected record of this performance of Stabat Mater!

Let me,

Thanks so much.    I've been trying to find this without success - but then I'm a complete dingbat as far as the internet is concerned ...  

A.

Dear Nenuphar

Many many thanks for your review!   
It was for sure an amazing concert and not less amazing meeting! I´m so glad for you!   

Dear Nenuphar,
as I wasn't there myself....do you have some pics?

" An Angel at our Table"

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Quote :

Von Sarah Batschelet, 06 Juni 2014

If you sing like an angel, you might as well look like one. Philippe Jaroussky, considered one of the world’s finest countertenors, came onto the stage in Hohenems, Austria, last Saturday evening with the demeanour of a celestial being: elegant, somewhat chiselled, an almost Mannerist figure, but indeed mortal (born in 1978 in Maisons-Laffitte, France). While best known for his compelling and enlivened interpretations of Baroque cantatas and operas − one only need listen to his stunning rendition of Handel’s “Lascia ch’io pianga” to know why – Jaroussky’s concert varied markedly from those genres. Instead, he and his superb accompanist, Jérôme Ducros, gave an emotive programme of music set to selected poems by Paul Verlaine, the early 20th century French poet.

While out of his usual repertoire, Jaroussky was by no means out of his comfort zone. He sang works composed by ten different composers, familiar names such as Claude Debussy, Gabriel Fauré, and Saint-Saëns figuring among them. Using a virtuosic coloratura technique, his songs spilled from him like sounds from a harp, and to the words used widely: “la calme,” “mon coeur,” “l’extase,” he lent new colour each time he came across one a second or third time. He also delved into works of lesser-known composers: Reynaldo Hahn, and Joseph Szulc, for example. The ease and buttery quality of his phrasing seem to have found just the right lyric in Ernest Chausson’s appeal to listen to  “La chanson bien douce”  or Poldowski’s “La lune blanche, whose last line is: “Cêst l’heure exquise.” The concert was that indeed.

Verlaine’s “Green” was performed twice in two different composers’ versions, and the delightful “Mandolin” no less than three times, by Fauré, Hahn and then Poldowsi. While sentimental by today’s measure, the poem’s words slid from the singer’s mouth like honey or mead. And his expression, perfect diction and clear tonality met with a warm reception; when he ended the song with an infectious smile on “de brise,” most of the audience broke out in a chuckle along with him. Jaroussky’s is an infinitely likeable stage presence.

Countertenor, of course, is not every music listener’s darling. It is a voice indebted to the tradition of the great Italian castrati, and we are told that for every young man who enjoyed its brief success, there were hundreds of others whose careers had but the bleakest of prospects. Jaroussky’s more recent story differs widely: apart from being entirely “intact” − as many are quick to point out − he began his musical career with the violin, but took up piano before ultimately turning to singing and a conscious choice to develop his “head voice.”

Hohenems is an unassuming place. An agrarian community among the Austrian aristocracy’s great land tracts, it developed in the late 19th century into a thriving financial, trade, and cultural community, in no small part thanks to its Jewish population. The war years changed that radically and today, the local, well-appointed – if emotionally shattering – Jewish Museum is well worth a trip to Hohenems to understand how. But it is the town’s dramatic pre-alpine setting that seals the deal in the festival’s favour. The Hohenemser alps jut out of the ground just behind the town’s northernmost houses like huge moss-covered teeth of some great fabled beast, but one that, today, has been tamed to gentleness, and seemingly protects the town from all ills and prejudice.

It's interesting how a place such as this will spur creativity. A stone’s throw from Hohenems’ Markus Sittikus concert hall is another museum devoted to the German soprano, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, who not only performed frequently here, but also enjoyed the company of other legendary musical talents. Above the concert hall, founder of the festival, Gerd Nachbauer, shares a collection of homely photographs whose many greats of opera, chamber- and orchestral music – Fischer-Dieskau, Abbado, Lang Lang, for example – sit arm-in-arm with colleagues around a table or pose in the garden, giggling and looking remarkably young…

Philippe Jaroussky also now counts among the stellar musicians who share this little patch of the world’s enchantment. As for the critics who suggest he stick to the Baroque repertoire: go home! I, for one, hardly want to be bereft of a voice that extracts such beauty from the French syllabic song, and will counter any who argue that Jaroussky should run the old road only. He’s just too good at what he did on Saturday night. Other than that, why mess with angels?

Thanks to Lilo Multipase for sharing !