Review: Classical - Prom 59 Royal Albert Hall London / BBC Radio 3 FOREIGN Edition 1

Claron McFadden's account of the solo part steered a middle course, technically as well as stylistically, between those singers who firmly emphasise the spoken, rather than the sung, aspects of Sprechstimme, and those who convey more of the actual pitches that [Arnold Schoenberg] notated; the l...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inIndependent (London, England : 1986)
Main Author Potter, Keith
Format Newspaper Article
LanguageEnglish
Published London (UK) Independent Digital News & Media 06.09.2001
Subjects
Schoenberg, Arnold
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Summary:Claron McFadden's account of the solo part steered a middle course, technically as well as stylistically, between those singers who firmly emphasise the spoken, rather than the sung, aspects of Sprechstimme, and those who convey more of the actual pitches that [Arnold Schoenberg] notated; the latter approach usually avoids absurd histrionics but can easily knock the stuffing out of a work in which heightened expression is crucial to meaning. With a crack team of instrumentalists, conducted by Pierre-Andre Valade, and some sensitively deployed amplification, Monday's performance eschewed fancy staging to stress a versatile range of timbre and dramatic nuance as well as allowing us to hear a lot of Schoenberg's sometimes complex counterpoint - a considerable feat in the Albert Hall.
ISSN:0951-9467