Winterize brings Schubert outdoors.
by
Paul J. Pelkonen
 |
Christopher Dylan Herbert sings Schubert in Winterize.
Photo by the author. |
Schubert's
Winterreise is a harrowing descent into solitude, madness (and probably, hypothermia) told over 24 songs. Based on poems by Wilhelm Müller, this is the composer's crowning achievement in the field of
lieder, a forbidding journey for any singer. Most performances take place in a concert or recital hall, with a formally attired singer and accompanist tracking the hapless protagonist's journey, a setting of relative comfort for audience and artists.
On Friday afternoon, New York baritone Christopher Dylan Herbert walked a different path, performing the song cycle at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden as part of a city-wide arts project,
Make Music New York. This particular performance, dubbed
Winterize, took place in the sere, leafless grounds of the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens on the first day of winter. Under a chilly, leaden sky, the songs of Schubert had new meaning and weight, especially as clouds rolled in over Prospect Heights and the wind picked up.
Although singing in the cold, Mr. Herbert proved to have a rich, theatrical baritone that had no difficulty being heard in this outdoor setting. He projected the emotions behind this descent into madness, capturing the irony of the cycle's more fantastical moments and the self-flagellating character of Schubert's protagonist. From the steady tramp of "Gute Nacht" through the manic determination of later songs like
Mut, this was a consistent, and sometimes harrowing performance. He managed the wide spectrum of sounds, even floating a lovely "head voice" in the more difficult passages of
Die Nebensonnen and the haunting despair of
Der Leiermann.
