Erfullung der Sehnsucht - Jonas Kaufmann in Dusseldorf

Photo Susanne Diesner from the Rheinische Post via Marion's page.



Programm:Jonas Kaufmann
Staatskapelle Weimar Dirigent: Michael Güttler
11.10.09 Düsseldorf Tonhalle

1. Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 1827) Coriolan op. 62 Ouvertüre
2. Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 1827) Fidelio Gott, welch Dunkel hier! ... In des Lebens Frühlingstagen Szene des Florestan 2. Akt
3. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 1791) Don Giovanni Ouvertüre
4. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 1791) Die Zauberflöte Dies Bildnisist bezaubernd schön Arie des Tamino 1. Akt
5. Carl Maria von Weber (1786 1826) Oberon Ouvertüre
6. Carl Maria von Weber (1786 1826) Der Freischütz Nein, länger trag ich nicht die Qualen! … Durch die Wälder, durch die Auen Rezitativ und Arie des Max 1. Akt
PAUSE
7. Richard Wagner (1813 1883) Lohengrin Vorspiel zum 3. Aufzug
8. Richard Wagner (1813 1883) Parsifal Amfortas! Die Wunde! Szene des Parsifal 2. Aufzug
9. Franz Schubert (1797 1828) Rosamunde, Fürstin von Zypern D 797 op.26 Zwischenaktmusik Nr. 3 B-Dur
10. Richard Wagner (1813 1883) Die Walküre Winterstürme wichen dem Wonnemond Liebeslied des Siegmund 1. Aufzug
11. Richard Wagner (1813 1883) Lohengrin Vorspiel zum 1. Aufzug
12. Richard Wagner (1813 1883) Lohengrin In fernem Land Gralserzählung des Lohengrin 3. Aufzug

Encores:
1 . Giuditta, Lehar – Freunde, das Leben ist lebenswert
2. Tosca, Puccini – E lucevan le stelle
3. Carmen, Bizet – La fleur
4. L’Arlesiana, Cilea – Il lamento di Federico



Don’t worry I will not write this post in German, although I am very tempted ;-)
Sehnsucht… in English “longing”, is, as most of you probably know, the title of Jonas Kaufmann’s latest CD. Well, at least in Germany it has that name… in the Uk it’s anonymous.. No comment on that…. I was going to do a post about the CD itself at some point, and I might get round to doing it. Still, in light of the “live” event, the whole thing has taken on a new twist for me.

I should really say that I have had the CD now for … a little over 4 months. I usually tend to grow tired of CDs, that is I listen and then end up parking them away on a shelf, or in some corner of my mp3 player and switch to a different one. I might come back randomly to various older ones, but I am not normally a serial listener of anything. Curiously, this one is still on my active playlist and I find myself going back to it again and again. And enjoying it with the same or mostly, multiplied pleasure. So far so good, it really is a good CD, the sound has been cared for and the repertory is generally newer to me than many other things.

In Jonas’ case for me it was also particularly interesting to listen to it, as except for the Fidelio I had no memories of live experiences to fall back to and some were totally new for him as well. Still, Cds are just impressions of a moment in time and they can give you a taste of the music, but they can’t really replace the live rendition. Having said that, I really love the music on the CD and some are real treasures, like Schubert’s Alfonso und Estrella or Wintersturme. To the point that for the first time in my life I have a personalised ringtone on my handy :-) It has just become a bit tricky to explain to people why I don’t tend to pick up the phone until it has rung at least 4-5 times… Can’t really tell one’s parents or one’s boss that you keep them waiting on the line because you want to hear Jonas sing Winterstürme wichen dem Wonnemond …. one more time ;-)

But however much I like this CD it is full of those deadly arias that make or break a night at the opera in a live performance. It is definitely not a CD that translates easily into a concert recital. I am also one of those funny people who prefers a full opera to aria recitals. So here I was trying to make up my mind about definitely going to Dusseldorf or not. In the end the agenda made the choice easy, since it was the only one on a weekend it was going to be either this one or none :-( And I wasn’t going to accept “none” as a valid choice.

Then of course I started wondering what the program would look like. You could mix and match from both CDs… but that would just be a style salad, didn’t think that would be the case. Sehnsucht needs its integrity to be what it is and say what it means to say… but come on… even Wagner only put one of those stones on the tenor’s shoulders in an opera…this CD had a whole mountain worth of them…. At the same time I was dying to hear things like Wintersturme live! Then I saw the program and half of me was scary excited with the prospect of hearing most of them live for the first time and the other half of me was… just plain scared ;-) Can anyone be expected to sing all that in under 2 hours? Can Parsifal and Florestan coexist in such a tight space in time? Can Tamino emerge fresh from Florestan’s hallucinations? Well actually the question wasn’t really “can it?”, I know in Jonas Kaufmann they can …. And “Sehnsucht” proved they can :-) what gave me the jitters was the “how?” I knew the CD had, willingly or not, created a certain imprint in my ears and of course I realised the live experience would be different, the unknown was of course how different?

Anyways, since I was only going to get one shot at this, on the day I parked jitters aside and went for the Wilhelm Tell approach , put the apple on my head , sat completely still, opened eyes wide and trusted the archer’s skills :-) Well, in practice wriggled myself into my first ever front row seat at a concert, almost dead centre, knees almost touching the stage and eyes at .. well, shoe - level for artist, conductor and orchestra…. Yes, really, that close! And no, I’m no advocate of half measures as you can tell ;-))) A bit too literal on the “laying stuff at somebody’s feet” thing for my taste ;-) And talking about strange, have you ever had music being created literally at the top of you head? If not, you should try it sometimes :-) Like snorkelling but in music, not water :-)


The program itself turned out to be very well conceived, the orchestra pieces were really enjoyable and naturally linked the arias together , or rather formed natural bridges in-between. It’s been ages since I last heard Beethoven’s Coriolan and it was the perfect start. Not that all the pieces were perfectly played… generally well, but Mozart’s Don Giovanni lacked a bit of agility and precision and some of the others had a bit too much oomph. Nothing too disturbing though and their enthusiasm was refreshing.

We were off to a relaxed start when the conductor discovered he had forgotten the Fidelio score and was off to fetch it. Tenor was left alone on stage and decided to share a confession about how he thinks he is getting old ( wha??? Yep, really ;-)))) because for some arias he feels he needs the score close by for added comfort. Fair enough, we all giggled :-) several people made sympathetic observations about Wagner arias being waaaaayyy loooong :-) Old or not ( baaahhh!! Quatsch!!!!!) he must have really good eyes, because from where the scores where laid on a low stand I couldn’t have seen any of the text, never mind little black dots on lines…. No luck with me prompting anything either I’m afraid because I had not done my homework, besides I’m awful at learning text by heart ;-) Conductor was back with score and bang we were thrown right into Florestan’s cell! Unbelievable, but it was from giggles to chills in the blink of an eye. And right above my head a wonderful thing happened… I got to hear and feel that Gooooooooottt being born, exactly that Goooot that made my jaw drop all those months ago when i first heard it live in Zurich… Oh my God….. It made the air around me physically vibrate and I felt it up to the little hairs in my ears…. Guttler took the first part pretty slow only to kick into hurricane speed at the end. But I got mein “Das Masss der Leeeeeiiiiideeeeeennnn” as intense and heartfelt as I could have wished it!!!! Jonas reached up to the “fuhrt mich zur Freiheit ins himmlische Reich” as if carried by the „sauselnde Luft“.. .what an accomplishment at that hallucinating speed!!!! It was clear he was in excellent form and even though at such closeness I was wondering whether I wouldn’t hear the sounds being produced rather than just the voice itself, no such thing happened. It is not a bad thing even if it does, like the orchestra sound becoming a kaleidoscope of instruments, rather than one flow of sound, it’s just different from what one is used to. Amazingly enough emerging from a meter and so above my head the voice sounds as perfectly tuned and honed like from the back of a hall or the top of the amphitheatre. Maybe this is boring to explain for you, but I found it amazing :-) This is how it must sound from the stage, heard by colleagues only normally, absolutely fascinating. Close up the nuances are amazing, the passes quicker and smoother than one could imagine. It’s so incredibly agile, like a race horse really :-) And you can’t hear a single breath!!! I could hear the conductor , even instrumentists, but not Jonas breathe….. all you heard was clear musical line and round, soft, full words.

Don’t for a second think that I was analysing all this while he was singing.. God, no!!!! it just suddenly hit me somewhere in the middle of some ouverture :-)

The orchestra hopped through the Don Giovanni and then there we were, to be or not to be…. Tamino? And there he was, right in front of us, youthful, enthusiastic, open to the world and falling for his Pamina…. I thought the full-bodied voice was a suiting expression of Tamino’s overflowing longing for love and life in general. But it came enveloped in such tender innocence and softness, one couldn’t help but smile. I liked Florestan but I was even more touched by Tamino. It was all I had expected and so much more! I know this is a point of dispute for many, but I believe people let themselves be blinded somehow by the tone of voice and forget to listen to how and what he sings. All the feelings and hopes Tamino has were there :-) For those who doubt it they should have listened to the nuances of the Liebe as expressed by Tamino versus the Liebe in Siegmund’s aria…nobody but Tamino can cherish that last “eeevig ware sie dann meeeeeein” in such an almost reverent way!

On to Weber’s Oberon, obviously enjoyed by everyone present, as I was saying during this concert there never was a dull moment, never a feeling of wanting to speed things up, on the contrary a feeling of wanting to make time last to enjoy it longer.

And Jonas became Max! I am soooo glad my suspicions last year that this had been left out to join the Sehnsucht “crew” were right :-) I can’t imagine a better musical bridge between Florestan, Tamino and Parsifal. It was simply electrifying, the romantic moments , the curt, intense phrases towards the end, the hair-raising high notes and the deep drop on Spott! There was a feeling of invisible crescendo in the atmosphere, some kind of expectation. I was really stunned! It felt like a rhythmic series of musical punch lines that picked on your heartbeat and accelerated your pulse to follow the music.

Needless to say, knowing what would follow from that kept everyone adequately wired :-) Although I have to say much of the audience either had to check their programs to identify the pieces or simply didn’t know what was being sung. And still the electricity in the hall proved that even though the audience maybe wasn’t fully aware of the difficulty of what was presented, the singing which appeared to be so easy and natural was rather extraordinary :-)

The Lohengrin Vorspiel only contributed to the heightening of the festive feeling, I for one was almost holding my breath. Jonas came back jokingly arranging the score and before I even had time to say to myself and now… it hit me: Amfooooooooortaaaasss!!!!!! …. Die Wuundeeee….. The fact that he can literally laugh one minute and then turn one inside out in two words is witchcraft!!!!! I’ve ducked this a couple of times when listening to the CD.. no idea why really, probably chicken! Well there was no escaping there….. nowhere to hide from its impact, no way to shield oneself against its burn. Nothing could have prepared me for it…..It’s great on Cd but as I now know, you haven’t heard Parsifal until you’ve seen and felt the wounds live. That knowledge and the rejection in “dieser Kuss” and the definitive “ewig von mir!!” I can’t begin to explain the wealth of nuances, colours and dynamics, the intentions dripping from very word! I know now that Parsifal has become one of my favourites from the CD, if not the absolute favourite :-) Sunday in the hall I was literally fighting for air amidst a sensation of “what was that????? ” I’m sorry to say I didn’t manage to get one note from Schubert’s Rosamunde, which I am sure is a perfectly lovely piece, but I was busy gathering my wits….

Especially since somewhere in the middle of it, realisation hit me again…. Wintersturme!!! My first Wintersturme live ever was next on the menu….. By this moment I had forgotten that this program is difficult to sing, bla bla bla…. Never mind the tenor! He’s doing just peachy!! It’s me I was worried about…where is the oxygen in this place???? The women behind me goes : “Kommt da noch was?” In an almost doubtful and surprised tone… she too felt it had been quite a lot.. well lady, you have no idea!!!! Check out this one!!

Well… if you think the one on the CD was good… I think it was definitely meeehhh compared to the one live… exuberant, just overflowing with passion… I felt like “jauchzen” myself! And I’ve never seen anyone transform themselves so completely from Parsifal’s restraint and disciple, decided containment to such open, almost explosive and definitely contagious joy!! He IS Siegmund!!!! it was just a dream! And his entire being, his melancholic smile, his every pore seemed to exude Liebe und Lenz.... just.... unbelievable!!!! I mean the difference between Parsifal and Siegmund couldn't be wider in terms of mood of the aria, colour of voice, everything... and yet it happened, there , live in a matter of minutes! I don't think Wagner ever sounded so enchanting, so full of life and almost divinely beautiful!

Thank God some kind soul put Lohengrin’s Vorspiel next, to let me gently float back to earth, I’d have broken more than just my heart being knocked back to the ground after that…. I had no voice to shout Bravo with the rest of them…

I somehow had a feeling the In fernem Land would start within the music, with no interruption and not surprisingly I was right. I’m boring myself by now by saying this every new time I hear him sing it : it is the best of all the Gralserzahlungen he’s sung…. Well, it was! I could go on and on about the Taube, Gral, Retter und Lohengrin genannt… but there is not point in chopping to pieces something so beautiful!

The audience, we all went wild… shouting, clapping, the lot!

So he just sang more… 4 more!!!!! Honestly, went he sang E lucevan I thought to myself … La fleur is next ;-))) And I was really thankful because he restored this for me where I have struggled through another quite disappointing one recently… It was that incredible situation which can almost be described as : well, he just did Sehnsucht for the main program and RA for encores!!!

I think it is amazing he sang those encores... and every single one of them was excellent... but for me right there with the last note of Lohengrin i had just lived through one of the most amazing nights in my life... i have never before and i don't know if i will ever hear anyone sing like that ever again...well, maybe except Jonas himself ;-))))

The music and the standing applause went on and on and we almost got encore nr 5 when they realised he would loose the last flight back to Munich, where he had to be the next morning for a Lohengrin rehearsal. He politely excused himself for not being able to do the programmed signing session and we finally released the still buoyant tenor and the already half dead conductor into the night…

I am so in awe you wouldn't believe it... i mean i saw the entire Carlo run..... and one week later i come out of this concert turned somehow upside down and inside out.... i've never ever experienced such a thing.... nor did i ever expect to be so touched by a concert… I thought i knew how Jonas sounds and what he can do.... i am so glad he proved me wrong again!

The memories of this night are tucked away in a place deep inside to be cherished forever :-) After all, it is the day I discovered Jonas Kaufmann… again :-)