wed 11/12/2024

Wolfgang Holzmair, Imogen Cooper, Wigmore Hall | reviews, news & interviews

Wolfgang Holzmair, Imogen Cooper, Wigmore Hall

Wolfgang Holzmair, Imogen Cooper, Wigmore Hall

Schumann's bicentenary celebrations come to a glorious conclusion in this lieder recital

Wolfgang Holzmair: Ageing into his musical prime

The last time I saw Wolfgang Holzmair in concert (at last year’s Oxford Lieder Festival, delivering one of the finest live performances of Winterreise I have heard) the silence that followed the cycle lasted almost 30 seconds – an absolute age where a fidgety post-concert audience is concerned. Last night’s programme of Schumann saw Holzmair finish and pause, hands raised prayerfully, holding his listeners’ attention like so many butterflies within his cupped palms. The release that followed was ecstatic, a spontaneous homage to the musical and narrative mastery of this extraordinary singer.

The last time I saw Wolfgang Holzmair in concert (at last year’s Oxford Lieder Festival, delivering one of the finest live performances of Winterreise I have heard) the silence that followed the cycle lasted almost 30 seconds – an absolute age where a fidgety post-concert audience is concerned. Last night’s programme of Schumann saw Holzmair finish and pause, hands raised prayerfully, holding his listeners’ attention like so many butterflies within his cupped palms. The release that followed was ecstatic, a spontaneous homage to the musical and narrative mastery of this extraordinary singer.

Holzmair has the gift - for a gift in lieder it assuredly is - of making himself as singer invisible

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Comments

Ah, so that ISN'T Simon Cowell AGAIN in the picture. What a relief. But maybe Wolfgang might change the hair - I know, he probably got there first - to stifle the 'separated at birth' comments.

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