Search - Christopher Maltman, Franz [Vienna] Schubert, Hugo [Composer] Wolf :: Songs by Schubert, Wolf, Debussy, Duparc and Warlock

An exciting song recital from a risk-taking English baritone

Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 01/22/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Christopher Maltman is a talented, well-established baritone who has stood in the shadow of another outstanding English baritone, Simon Keenlyside. Unlike Keenlyside, he hasn't been given any big opera roles on CD or his own solo aria recording. Now Maltman gets to stand alone in a Lieder and chansons recital, live from Wigmore Hall in London, and his accompanist is Julius Drake, one of the best around. The model for such recitals is Fischer-Dieskau, of course, and Maltman tries to be as forceful as his great preecessor, attacking the consonants and placing dramatic emphasis on the words.



He does a very good job, offering two diverse German composers (Schubert and Wolf) alongside two French ones who seem more similar than different (Duparc and Debussy), and an English traditionalist (Warlock) whose songs are treasured at home but mostly unknown abroad. The best thing about Maltman's extroverted approach is that he's willing to take risks and even push his voice outside its comfort zone (Wolf's Feuerreiter is hair-raising). The vocal technique isn't as rock-steady as Fischer-Dieskau, but it's exciting and committed. The recording made in-house is too resonant when the singer cuts loose, giving a bit of a rain-barrel effect, and I wish Drake weren't so reticent--he's been given some great piano music, not merely accompaniments.



But those are minor quibbles compared to how well Maltman can dramatize a song and hold his audience's attention. Nothing here is conventional or dull. How many American baritones could hold the stage this well in a song recital beyond Thomas Hampson?"