{"id":54915,"date":"2018-07-18T08:45:04","date_gmt":"2018-07-18T12:45:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/?p=54915"},"modified":"2018-07-18T08:45:04","modified_gmt":"2018-07-18T12:45:04","slug":"scrutiny-masterful-mesmerising-art-song-christoph-pregardien-julius-drake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2018\/07\/18\/scrutiny-masterful-mesmerising-art-song-christoph-pregardien-julius-drake\/","title":{"rendered":"SCRUTINY | Masterful, Mesmerising Art Song From Christoph Pr\u00e9gardien And Julius Drake"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Chrstoph
Christoph Pr\u00e9gardien and Julius Drake partner in a night of songs by Gustav Mahler and Franz Schubert. (Photo: John Terauds)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Christoph<\/strong> Pr\u00e9gardien and Julius Drake in recital. Toronto Summer Music Festival. Walter Hall. July 17.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The very best art song recitals draw one into a tight, charmed circle, where it\u2019s nothing but the singer, the song and your eager ears. Tuesday night\u2019s Toronto Summer Music Festival performance by German tenor Christoph Pr\u00e9gardien and British pianist Julius Drake was such an occasion.<\/p>\n

Working every note as a musical team, the two masters of their craft were mesmerizing in 90 minutes of Lieder<\/em> by Gustav Mahler and Franz Schubert.<\/p>\n

It might seem that performing a handful of songs over the course of an evening would be a breeze, but finding the right mood and the most direct way of connecting not only the words but the full emotional range and musical shape of each song needs much meticulous preparation.<\/p>\n

After you\u2019ve done the preparation, it all has to look effortless, as if you\u2019ve just decided to have a little after-dinner go at it at your best friend\u2019s piano.<\/p>\n

Drake is on the verge of 60, and Pr\u00e9gardien is 62. They have spent their entire adult lives with art song, and it shows. There wasn\u2019t a detail left unaccounted for in six selections from Mahler\u2019s Des Knabe Wunderhorn<\/em> song cycle, \u201cIch bin der Welt abhanden gekommen\u201d (I have let go of the world) from Mahler\u2019s Ruckert-Lieder<\/em>, and 10 Lieder<\/em> by Schubert (including two encores).<\/p>\n

Pr\u00e9gardien began with Mahler, but the first two songs were really a warmup. The tenor has been delving into a more baritonal sound in recent years, and it took a little while for the voice to loosen up.<\/p>\n

Once Pr\u00e9gardien\u2019s voice was in full flight for \u201cUrlicht,\u201d probably the most famous of the Knabe Wunderhorn <\/em>songs, the recital became electric. Frequently, the singer took the Lieder<\/em> at a fairly slow pace, but his determined, immaculate phrasing and expression made the passage of time immaterial.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s funny to think of Mahler as a warmup, but the Schubert songs need an incredible amount of effort in order for their full poetic range to bloom. Pr\u00e9gardien did not just stick to old chestnuts, delving into the more sweeping and dramatic material such as \u201cTotengrabers Heimweg\u201d (the gravedigger\u2019s way home).<\/p>\n

Like a great storyteller, Pr\u00e9gardien brought each story to vivid life \u2014 without any undue or obvious theatrics.<\/p>\n

Equally fulfilling was the partnership with the pianist. Drake conjured up the full symphonic sweep of Mahler\u2019s accompaniments with just two hands and the student-beaten Steinway at Walter Hall. This was not a shy or discreet accompaniment; it was a collaboration that matched the colour and mood of the melody note for note.<\/p>\n

Schubert is remarkable for his musical pivot between light and dark, sometimes in the same breath. Both singer and pianist made these passages palpable.<\/p>\n

Song recitals are not known as the musical world\u2019s most exciting way to spend an evening. But when true masters take the stage, any other kind of excitement seems superfluous.<\/p>\n

+++<\/p>\n

Like all of the professional artists invited to the Toronto Summer Music Festival, Christoph Pr\u00e9gardien is spending some time with the Festival\u2019s young performers. This includes a free public masterclass on July 19, at Walter Hall. This may be a wonderful window on seeing what is really needed to make musical magic happen on stage.<\/p>\n

You can find the full festival schedule at torontosummermusic.com<\/a>\u00a0or on our Datebook Calendar<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Christoph Pr\u00e9gardien and Julius Drake partner in a night of songs by Gustav Mahler and Franz Schubert.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":54916,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[14761,76,19,52,59,63],"tags":[21336,1803,3357,21318],"yst_prominent_words":[19666,21325,21339,21338,16286,21337,21334,21332,16700,21335,21333,7410,21326,21324,7432,7430,15153,15149,17606,9299],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2018\/07\/Pregardien_Drake_-_Terauds.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-ehJ","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54915"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54915"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54915\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54919,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54915\/revisions\/54919"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54915"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=54915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}