Temple Song

Middle Temple Hall, London

28 March 2006

Ian Bostridge (tenor)
Julius Drake (piano)

Gustav Mahler
Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen

Robert Schumann
Kerner Lieder

What the critics say

Richard Fairman, Financial Times, 30 March 2006

A hallowed air of Art hangs over Middle Temple Hall, where Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night had its first performance. It seems unarguable that music and drama should always belong here and that is evidently what the organisers of the Temple Song series thought.

This past winter five recitals have been given under the title “Schumann in the Temple”. It was a good idea to invite the accompanist Julius Drake to plan the programmes, as he has brought along well- known singers, including, for this last in the series, the tenor Ian Bostridge.

Tucked away in a gated community of lawyers, Middle Temple Hall is as private a venue as you could find. But not a silent one: on Tuesday, the music had to fight for attention with the hourly bell of Temple Church and a rogue hearing aid whistling throughout the first half.

Somehow the sense of struggle was apt. Bostridge is an idiosyncratic performer and he makes performing songs seem a difficult business. In his search for expression he goes to extremes of crooned soft head tone and forceful declamation, toiling with sweat and tears to plumb the emotional depths.

The result is an acquired taste. In music full of angst, such as Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, Bostridge brought the love- sick youth vividly to life. But whenever a simpler manner is required – Schumann’s rather dour Kerner Lieder call for it– he was way too arty and contrived. Drake’s accompaniments presupposed a more sensible way forward.

This was my second visit to the Temple Song series and I am still not happy with the acoustics. For the audience at the sides, the singer’s voice seems to float up to the ornate ceiling, there to commune with Shakespeare’s ghost and never come down again. Still, it is good news that there will be a second series next season.