Pianist Gerold Huber and baritone Christian Gerhaher perform at Moody Performance Hall in Dallas, January 26, 2025. (credit: Karen Almond)

Gerhaher and Huber deliver a transcendent Schumann recital in Dallas

CONCERT REVIEW:
Christian Gerhaher & Gerold Huber
January 26, 2025
Moody Performance Hall
Dallas, Texas – USA
Christen Gerhaher, baritone; Gerold Huber, piano.
Robert SCHUMANN: Selected Lieder

Gregory Sullivan Isaacs | 31 JAN 2025

Baritone Christen Gerhaher and his long-time collaborator, pianist Gerold Huber, are universally praised for their exceptional work as interpreters of German Leider (art songs). We finally got to experience them in Dallas on January 26 as part of The Dallas Opera’s innovative Titus Family Recital program. It was an amazing, almost transcendental, experience in all dimensions.

Gerhaher has an absolutely beautiful and creamy baritone sound that is capable of producing the rarity of soft, floaty phrases, but can add the full-force brass of the Trompette-en-Chamade stop at a moment’s notice. It is little wonder that, in addition to his fame for song recitals, he is also equally at home on the opera stage. His signature roles range from the title role in Berg’s Wozzeck to Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro, where he sings both the title role as well as the other leading baritone role, Count Almaviva.


Advertisement
  • JCSO 04 From Screen to Stage
  • SPI13 Atlanta's Finest Organists

The program of this Dallas recital was made up of songs by the Romantic-era composer, Robert Schumann. His vocal works are notorious for both their technical difficulty and the depth of emotions they express. Only fully accomplished singers dare to program them, and Gerhaher’s recital delivered a master class on how to do it correctly. His German was perfect and noticeably refined, especially in his minimizing of the final consonants. The phrasing was impeccable, and his vocal expression could change on a single word.

Speaking of words, we faced the usual challenges of presenting a program sung in its original language to an audience that speaks only English. We were furnished with a multi-page set of the original German and an excellent English translation by Richard Spokes, Professor of Lieder at London’s Royal Academy of Music. The typeface size was also large enough for reading in a dark venue. That was extremely useful and appreciated.


Advertisement
  • SPI14 Escher
  • CMSFW 04 Marmen 25-03-15
  • SCH07 Daniel Hope PCO

The problem was the stack of papers stapled in the upper left-hand corner with both German and English texts in adjacent columns on the page. First of all, the rattling of unison page turnings was quite noticeable, and getting the exact meaning of each word was a challenge. Carefully written and projected supertitles might be an improvement, especially since the opera company should have the required equipment.

That triviality aside, this was a very special afternoon of superb, even definitive, music-making.

EXTERNAL LINKS:

About the author:
Gregory Sullivan Isaacs is a Dallas-based composer, conductor, and journalist. He is also a coach and teacher with a private studio.

Read more by Gregory Sullivan Isaacs.
This entry was posted in Chamber & Recital and tagged , , , on by .

RECENT POSTS


 Christoia