Reviews
“The two bring a confidence and stylistic appositeness to the music. And frankly, I loved it.”
“Listening to the disc, what we first notice is the magical sound of the piano, the notes having a pearly quality to them but also dying away quickly, leaving a lot of space for the voice. Peres Da Costa is very fluid and flexible in his performance, keeping a constant sense of rubato, both long term and short moments. This is linked to van Stade’s tempo modification where the words have primacy.”
“Suddenly these stop being songs and turn into stories, narratives told through music with the poetry prime. Both performers make small changes throughout, responding to individual words and phrases. Completely gone is any sense of beautiful line, van Stade is perfectly capable of doing that but only when the text warrants it. A lot of his vocal devices completely go against what is standard practice nowadays. His voice production changes constantly, bringing a wonderful array of timbres and sound qualities, all in the service of expressing text and music.”
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“This was pure magic. This was extraordinary.”
“Also extraordinary were Sydney guests soprano Anna Fraser and Neal Peres da Costa accompanying her on a remarkable reproduction of a Viennese grand fortepiano (c.1805) in a truly unique “Re-Imagining Schubert” recital.
Following research into early recordings and written information from Schubert’s time, we were taken back in time with an “authentic” experience of Lieder, enhanced by Fraser’s re-imagining of bel canto. No fewer than 17 songs were presented in the clearest German with texts all provided in additional notes with translations, and our breath was taken away as we were submerged in true Romanticism. Fraser’s glorious tone, wide vocal range, her use of sprechstimme and her subtle theatrical presentation to convey or enhance the emotion of the sentimentality of the poetry, evoked strong imagination. Both musicians were locked together in the gentle “stretching of time” through sorrowful, darker lines – “My heart is full of leaden dread” and united in very poignant ad lib tempos – “Here the heart feels quite alone and melancholy tears are shed”. “Whispering breezes” brought more active delicate arpeggios on the lighter, transparent and often veiled tone of the fortepiano, and continual word painting with sighs and falling tears in Fraser’s descending expressions softened the hardest of hearts.”
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“A first-class performance which should delight any Schumann fan”
“Dutch tenor Koen van Stade and Australian pianist Neal Peres Da Costa have released a very interesting CD of Schumann’s Dichterliebe or The Poet’s Love, a series of 16 songs based on the poems of German poet, Heinrich Heine. To quote American musicologist Dr Jeremy Grimshaw: “When hearing Schumann’s 1840 collection, Dichterliebe, one must not only look for correspondences between poetic image and musical figure, but artistic incongruities, as well — moments where Schumann steps back from the verse, takes a critical stance, and engages with the poet on equal and sometimes even contradictory ground.” And this is precisely the point of this new presentation of the song cycle. Both Van Stade and Da Costa are specialists in historically informed performance and with considerable success have recreated the 16 song cycle in the manner in which they believe Schumann meant them to be sung and played. The result is considerably more expression than is normally accorded to these very personal songs by the singer and an at times eccentric accompaniment which is supported by a fascinating illustration in the accompanying booklet. The end result of the couple’s years of research has produced a first-class performance which should delight any Schumann fan.”
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“It was immediately noticeable that he was using some unfamiliar vocal techniques.”
In their concert for Art Song Canberra, “Schubert and Schiller”, tenor Koen Van Stade and pianist, Neal Peres Da Costa, took the audience on a journey into the now unfamiliar world of 19th century singing.
Neal Peres Da Costa played a fortepiano, producing a distinctively softer, but very clear sound.
Koen Van Stade sang a number of Schubert songs from the period. Superbly sung with great vocal control and feeling, and it was immediately noticeable that he was using some unfamiliar vocal techniques.
Between songs he explained the techniques he was using and their historical significance. It added another dimension to this fascinating concert..
The main vocal part of the concert was the singing of two songs by Schubert set to epic poems by Friedrich von Schiller – “Die Bürgschaft” (The Pledge) and “Der Taucher” (The Diver). Both Van Stade and Da Costa gave thrilling performances of these highly dramatic and complex works.
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Testimonials
Jordan Sarkis
“Reflecting on “Pria che spunti”, I found that working with García’s expressive annotations pushed me to think far more deliberately about the emotional timing and colouristic detail within the aria. My approach to the expressive annotations came from a technical perspective, where I would consider keeping the tone consistent, whilst preserving the emotive directions written by Garcia. An important point I found that aided my technicality was navigating the chiaro scuro throughout the piece, where notes climbing in pitch would relax into scuro, and lower pitched notes would descend into chiaro, a brightening clarity. This would tie in with my technical process where using scuro in the top notes would help elongate my stamina throughout the long piece. This is a difference to my usual approach for a piece of this duration. An example of Garcia’s descriptive markings within the score that aided my execution of the phrase would be in bar22 where the score reads “quickly” and “freely” for a fast trill and ascend on the word ‘sentira’. The annotation of “Freely” helped me approach the phrase with, of course, freedom allowing the notes to come out clearly and efficiently.”