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.
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.
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:
- Christian Gerhaher: gerhaher.de/en/
- Gerold Huber: solo-musica.de/en/gerold-huber
- Moody Performance Hall: moody.dallasculture.org

Read more by Gregory Sullivan Isaacs.