Julius Drake Birthday Gala - Wigmore Hall, 22 December 2009
Musicians' birthday concerts can be smugly self-congratulatory or so featherweight they're meaningless to anyone outside the enchanted circle. But Julius Drake's fiftieth was hardcore. Just like any regular recital, he was at the piano throughout, serious and attentive to detail. The only difference was the regular change of partner.
The uncelebratory tone was set early on with Derek Lee Ragin singing Purcell's Lord, what is man, followed by Ian Bostridge and the three darkest songs from Britten's Who are these Children?. Songs of blood and death, explored with frightening intensity by Bostridge, whose voice has darkened and gained power recently. There was a welcome return to form by Mark Padmore too, lyrically flowing in Schubert's Auf dem Strom with Richard Watkins on sensitively judged horn.
Christopher Maltman slotted in four of Wolf's Mörike Lieder with great composure before dashing for a train, and Birgid Steinberger's fragile soprano flitted from Mendelssohn, Schumann and Strauss to Mahler. Gerald Finley wrapped his handsome voice around a couple of Tchaikovsky songs before slotting the names of Drake's daughters into the final line of Ives's Two little flowers - the only overt acknowledgement of the recital's purpose all night.
Alice Coote made a mini-opera of Der Zwerg, the expressionist highlight of a Schubert selection that left everyone wanting more. Sophie Daneman's cool Fauré and Joyce DiDonato's immaculately poised Spanish songs offered a contrast in perspective - one of the fruits of gathering this diverse bunch of singers together in one place, and a reminder that whatever the composer, whatever the singer, Drake could adapt his skills subtly and effectively.
It wasn't all singing - Nicholas Daniel joined Drake for three Schumann canons. I'm not convinced that a rearrangement for piano and oboe really works, but the warmth and easy empathy of the performance compensated.
A grand finale saw everyone back on stage together with pairings including Bostridge and Daneman in Schubert's Licht und Liebe and DiDonato and Finley in Fauré's Pleurs d'or. But one of the evening's most special moments was the only one where Julius Drake sat back, as Mark Padmore was accompanied only by Nicholas Daniel for Britten's I wonder as I wander.
Three hours after it began, the evening ended with what everyone had been waiting for, all Julius Drake's guests singing together. The fitting choice? Brahms's Zum Schluss ('in conclusion').
