The Parish Church of St John-at-Hampstead

Martin Oxenham – Baritone / William Melvin – Violin / Leo Melvin – Cello / Lee Ward – Pianoforte

To celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of Robert Schumann, the Friends of the Music organised a Musical Soirée in what must be one of the few Music Rooms of its size in a private house in London, lent by Bryan and Sirkka Sanderson.

The idea of music-making in a domestic setting was added to by the two instrumental musicians being brothers.

We began with Three romances for Cello and Piano.  Anyone who knows Schumann’s songs could recognise the links with what he had written before, and the instruction for the second one “Simple, Intimate” sums up what Schumann was particularly good at.  Without ever producing the searing pain of Schubert in “Winterreise” he could convey deep feeling in a few lines.  This piece gave Leo Melvin a change to show what he could do, and, having a personal love for the cello, it was a great pleasure to hear how elegantly he balanced the speed of the movements, particularly when the instruction for two of the three is “not quick”.  This could be a trap but he made both of them different.

It was very interesting to hear Lee Ward as pianist in instrumental ensembles.  We have heard him before with a singer but this was different and rewarding.  Of course Schumann was married to a virtuoso pianist in his wife Clara, who started as a child prodigy, pushed by her Papa, who taught the considerably older Schumann, so he had a first class interpreter to hand.

We then moved on, with baritone Martin Oxenham, to Schumann’s much loved cycle “Dichterliebe” or “Poet’s Love”.

When Goethe wrote his novel “Werther”, which caused a major literary sensation, he was a major influence on the Romantic fascination with unhappy love, specially from a man’s point of view.  The story of Werther, who falls in love with Charlotte, who is already engaged to a perfectly nice man called Albert [who’s away at the time and it’s not his fault] and resolutely sticks to her engagement, even though she later admits to Werther it’s him she really loves, leading to his suicide, caused alarm, as it led in real life to a small wave of suicides of young men.  This, unlike in Schubert’s “Schöne Müllerin”, does not happen in this cycle, but the poet’s love story is not a happy one.  Originally the poems were out of a collection by another great German Romantic figure, Heine, and were not meant to tell a story.  So we can look at the set of songs in two ways, either as all happening to the one young man or as experiences – happy, sad, bitter – of love as experienced in life in general.

Martin Oxenham is a very experienced singer, with a nice dark-brown tone and very good diction, which is particularly important for songs where the point has to be got over in little more than a few bars.  One of the bigger songs “Ich Grolle Nicht” works, I think, better for a baritone than a tenor, though tenors often sing the cycle, and when the pressure was on Martin was there.  Throughout the songs, the theme drifts in and out that the girl did not want to marry – or was pushed into marrying – someone else – the man’s bitterness breaks through when he sees her wearing diamonds, presumably given to her by a rich husband – but then he tells her he dreams about her – “I see the snake which is eating your heart – I see how wretched you are” and he gets some consolation from knowing she is unhappy too.

A particular feature of these songs are the melodies which sound cheerful set to words that are anything but, and Martin got this across very clearly.

Lee was sterling support all through, particularly with nimble finger-work in the accompaniments which needed it.  A roller-coaster ride of emotion in a short space of time for both singer and pianist.   

We then turn to Clara Schumann as composer.  Yes, she did that too.  Step forward William Melvin, who has played for us before in the church, so we already knew we would get quality playing.  The second of Three Romances gave the violin more scope, and we could appreciate his silky tone.  The third and last has the daunting instruction “Passionately fast”.  Suffice to say, it was!

After the interval Martin returned to sing four songs set to poems by Kerner, a Romantic poet who touched on another favourite theme, nature and the countryside.  All four songs express different sorts of longing.  Both the last song here, and particularly the last song of “Dichterliebe”, end with almost a mini-piano-solo, so the singer has to stand, holding the mood, till this finishes.  Schumann did this in “Frauenliebe und Leben” too.  “Silent Tears” musically reminds one of “Du bist wie eine Blume”, one of Schumann’s best-loved songs.  There is a dramatic crescendo for the voice in this song, and we got it from Martin.

Interestingly, in “Dichterliebe” a famous German cathedral, Cologne, is mentioned, as the poet compares his beloved to the statue of the Virgin Mary found there.  In this group Augsburg Cathedral is the setting for the beloved’s decision to become a nun.

The programme concluded with a full-scale piano trio, uniting both the Melvins and Lee.  The sparkling first movement threw the ball, as it were, from instrument to instrument, giving everyone space.  The second movement was very much the violin’s, bringing elegant playing from William.  Leo set the third movement going in great style, but I couldn’t help feeling the cello was rather disadvantaged in this score in general.  The fourth and last movement gave Lee some nice opportunities on the piano.

And for anyone who wished to enjoy a Romantic wallow, there was always the Conservatory!