Wednesday’s lunchtime recital in the RBA was given by Jane Archibald and Liz Upchurch.  It was a programme of songs by the Schumanns (Robert and Clara) and their protegé Johannes Brahms, in celebration of their relationship which extended well beyond Robert’s premature death.

It was a carefully curated selection of thirteen songs sung without a pause.  All were to German texts.  Some were very familiar and some less so.  Most of them express the 19th century German Romantic (with a capital R) idea of love based on longing, purity and a general lack of requitedness.  Heine’s “Du bist wie eine Blume” is pretty typical.  Here’s the first verse in Richard Stokes’ translation:

You are like a flower,
So sweet and fair and pure.
I look at you , and sadness
Steals into my heart.

Jane is perfectly equipped to sing these songs with great beauty and expressiveness and she certainly did.  It was refreshing though to get a few numbers with a little more “Sturm und Drang” to them.  I found her impassioned version of “Widmung” particularly moving.  Maybe because it’s the one Schumann song that in a weird sort of way seems to prefigure Strauss.  Brahms’ “Von ewiger Liebe” from the Vier Gesänge, Op. 43 was another more dramatic piece that made a fitting and emotionally satisfying end to the programme.  Thoughtful and apt accompaniment from Liz from beginning to end.

So, all in all, a very beautiful way to spend a cold and sunny February lunchtime.

Photo credits: Karen E. Reeves