Christopher Maltman and Goethe

Read my review published today in the Washington Post:

Charles T. Downey, Christopher Maltman and Graham Johnson at the Austrian Embassy
Washington Post, April 29, 2010

Baritone Christopher Maltman, a Vocal Arts Society regular, returned for another concert on Tuesday night at the Austrian Embassy. Unlike his last recital here -- exactly three years earlier, to the day -- he performed songs that were all in German and all set to poems by Goethe. The architect of this brilliant and expertly executed program, accompanying pianist Graham Johnson, also wrote the informative program notes.

These 20-some texts, taken from throughout Goethe's life and organized according to biographical period, were served up in musical versions -- and generally not the ones you might expect -- by Beethoven, Schumann, Brahms, Wolf, Loewe and, especially, Schubert. Some songs exploited the guileless and simple side of Maltman's voice, one step above dramatic recitation, as in Schubert's setting of the folk ballad "Heidenröslein." Others displayed his ability to differentiate many voices, as in the same composer's "Szene aus Faust," incarnating a malicious spirit, the terrified Gretchen, and a choir intoning the Latin sequence of the Requiem Mass. [Continue reading]

Christopher Maltman, baritone
Vocal Arts Society
Embassy of Austria

Lieder by:
Beethoven | Brahms | Loewe | Schubert | Schumann | Wolf

SEE ALSO:
Alex Baker, Christopher Maltman at the Austrian Embassy (Wellsung, April 27)