Louise Alder, Nikolay Borchev, Konstantin Krimmel
Oxford Lieder, 26th October 2019
There is something deliciously perverse about opening the final recital of a 16-day, 80-event song festival with an opera overture, but Sholto Kynoch, pianist, artistic director and programming mastermind behind Oxford Lieder, has an eye – and ear – for the unexpected. Alexander Zemlinsky’s four-hand piano arrangement of the Zauberflöte overture bustled along with crisp phrasing, a deft curtain-raiser to a cleverly constructed recital exploring the “dangerous liaisons” of love. From flirting and fear of rejection we advanced to seduction and entrapment by birdcatchers, fishermen and loreleis before, in a selection from Hugo Wolf’s Italienisches Liederbuch, love soured.
Sholto Kynoch, Louise Alder and Nikolay Borchev
© Mark Pullinger
Click here to read the full review on Bachtrack.