Franz Schubert (1797-1828)
Stimme der Liebe
Ian Partridge (tenor & piano), Jennifer Partridge, Ernest Lush (piano)
rec. 1968-1972
German texts & English translations included
SOMM Recordings SOMMCD0670 [68]
SOMM released this disc specifically to celebrate the 85th birthday of Ian Partridge. The distinguished English tenor reached that milestone on 12 June 2023. The disc contains 20 Lieder in performances recorded by the BBC, none of which have previously appeared on CD. On most of the tracks the singer is accompanied by his regular recital partner, his sister, Jennifer. However, on the last two tracks he is accompanied by Ernest Lush (1908-1988) who was for many years a stalwart accompanist for the BBC. On tracks 16 to 18 Ian Partridge not only sings the songs but he also accompanies himself at the piano.
Ian Partridge had a very distinctive timbre. I’m aware that his voice is not to everyone’s taste but it’s always been very much to mine. His 1973 EMI recording of Die schöne Müllerin, made with his sister, was always highly regarded and has long been one of my favourite versions. I also highly esteem his performances of English song. His account of Vaughan Williams’ On Wenlock Edge remains a top recommendation and he also displayed a wonderful affinity for Finzi. His performance on Vernon Handley’s 1970s recording of Intimations of Immortality has, in my opinion, never been surpassed and I was delighted to find that my colleague John France is of a similar mind (review). There are certain passages in that work – I think of the opening solo (‘There was a time…) and even more the tenor’s last passage (‘And O ye fountains…’) – which, once heard sung by Partridge, can never be forgotten. To the best of my knowledge, he was never asked to record Finzi’s Dies Natalis, which is a crying shame: does a recording of a broadcast exist, I wonder, which an enterprising label might be able to issue on CD?
To my lasting regret, I never got to hear Ian Partridge live, though I came tantalisingly close once. In the mid-1980s, I lived for three years in the fine east Yorkshire market town of Beverley, near Hull. Once, I booked to attend a recital at Hull University at which the Partridges were to perform Die schöne Müllerin. To my great disappointment, Ian Partridge was indisposed; the baritone Stephen Varcoe deputised. To the best of my recollection, Varcoe sang very well, but it wasn’t the same because I was looking forward to hearing a tenor – and a particular tenor at that – perform the cycle. Incidentally, that was well before my reviewing days. Had I been reviewing the concert I would have given plaudits to Jennifer Partridge. She may well have been familiar with the songs in the lower keys in which Stephen Varcoe sang them, but even so it would have been no mean feat to get the songs performance-ready in those keys at what was presumably fairly short notice.
The present selection derives from several BBC recording sessions. Let me deal first with those which don’t involve Jennifer Partridge. It would appear from a remark included in a booklet interview with Jon Tolansky, that the first time that Partridge got the opportunity to sing Schubert to a significant degree was when he did some work with Ernest Lush for the BBC. The two songs presented here – Stimme der Liebe and Sei mir gegrüsst were recorded in March 1969. By comparison with many of the other items on this disc, the sound of the piano is a little lacking in bass but otherwise the sound is perfectly acceptable. Partridge sings most attractively and Ernest Lush supports him very well indeed.
The preceding three songs – Ihr Bild, Das Fischermädchen and Nacht und Träume – were recorded in March 1972. The performances are rather unusual in that Ian Partridge not only sings them but also accompanies himself at the piano. I’m mildly surprised that this aspect isn’t commented upon in the booklet. I learned a bit more about this from a very nice feature in which James Jolly interviewed Ian Partridge for the July 2023 edition of Gramophone magazine. It seems that Partridge was initially a pianist and, indeed, he says that he kept up with the piano until about 1965, “and then I had to stop because you can’t be doing two things well”. It seems that the three Schubert performances in question came about on the initiative of a BBC producer, Anthony Friese-Green who put together a series of six programmes under the title ‘Double Exposure’, which featured people who did two things well. Friese-Green invited Ian Partridge to take part and these three performances are the result. I don’t think anyone who heard these performances “blind” would know that they were not listening to the traditional singer-pianist line up. Indeed, let me confess that when I first listened to this disc, I played it in track order; this meant that Ihr Bild followed immediately on from the first fifteen tracks on which Jennifer Partridge plays. Lazily, I didn’t study the track list with sufficient care and in my listening notes for Ihr Bild I scribbled “JP’s [Jennifer Partridge’s] wonderful weighting of the piano, especially the bass notes”. So, I was sufficiently led astray by Ian Partridge’s pianism that I attributed the playing to his sister! Suffice to say that Ian Partridge sings and plays the song beautifully; clearly, he has no problems with multi-tasking. The other two songs in the group also go well. In Das Fischermädchen Partridge achieves a beguiling lilt both with his voice and his fingers. Nacht und Träume is one of Schubert’s finest songs. On the printed page the music looks quite simple but, in reality, it requires expert technique on the part of both singer and pianist. Ian Partridge is successful on both counts and offers us a rapt performance, full of atmosphere.
The first fifteen tracks on the disc all feature the celebrated partnership of Ian and Jennifer Partridge. In the booklet, Ian Partridge says that he found it stimulating to work with other pianists; “Even so, I felt at my best when I was singing with Jennifer, and her presence in the lion’s share of the songs on this CD is testimony to that”. Their musical partnership goes right back to their teenage years These recordings were made at various times in their early thirties and it’s immediately evident to the listener that by the early 1970s theirs was a settled and instinctive partnership. It’s evident, too, that they shared a delight in exploring some of Schubert’s lesser-known songs, such as Die gefangenen Sänger and Der blinde Knabe, both of which are given excellent performances.
The very first item on the disc, Im Frühling promises much in that the singing and the pianism are graceful and relaxed: everything flows smoothy and, it seems, effortlessly; this is art concealing art, and it proves to be a harbinger of the music-making that is to follow. As examples, the change to the minor key for the fifth stanza of the poem makes its expressive mark, but even so the essential gracefulness of the performance is not dispelled. Then, at the start of the sixth stanza Jennifer Partridge leads us back into the major tenderly. I loved the performance of Dass sie hier gewesen. Richard Stokes rightly describes this as “a song of hushed adoration” and that’s exactly how we experience it here. The extra intensity that Ian Partridge brings to the start of the third stanza of the poem stands out because everything else in the performance is so quietly controlled. Schubert’s piano accompaniment is very sparse; Jennifer Partridge places it all with an expert touch.
Ian Partridge’s voice is so well suited to Nachtviolen; he conveys the wistful melancholy in an ideal fashion. The very next song, An mein Herz calls for a much more urgent approach. Partridge achieves this without sacrificing the line or his tonal quality. Later in the programme, I admired very much the performance of Vor meiner Wiege. This is a song about death, and both performers bring real eloquence to their performance. Die Liebe hat gelogen is a song in which we hear, as Richard Stokes says,”[t]he searing pain of loneliness and unrequited love”. Ian Partridge offers an intense performance but his singing is always expertly controlled so that the intensity of feeling is never overdone; an ideal equilibrium is attained.
I’ve picked out a few individual performances that were personal highlights as I listened to the songs performed here by Ian and Jennifer Partridge. In truth, however, I could have referenced any – or all – of them. The singing and playing is consistently excellent and unfailingly stylish.
The BBC recordings have been restored by Lani Spahr and have come up sounding very fresh with a well-judged balance between pianist and singer. I’ve already commented a good deal on the excellence of the performances. I ought to add that Ian Partridge’s diction is an object lesson in clarity. I was interested to learn in the booklet that he doesn’t speak German, even now. He credits his ability with the language to help he received from the pianist Paul Hamburger and it seems to me that his German is excellent in these performances. But don’t take my word for it: the booklet reproduces a letter which Partridge received in 2009 from Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. The great baritone had heard recordings of Partridge singing Lieder and wrote to compliment him on having “just the right feeling for these jewels” and on the excellence of his German. That reproduction is part of an excellent booklet which includes the texts and translations, expert notes on the music by Richard Stokes and, most welcome of all, a delightful interview in which Ian Partridge talks with Jon Tolansky about his “life-long love affair” with Schubert Lieder.
Ian Partridge’s admirers – and indeed admirers of fine singing – will be indebted to SOMM for making these archive performances available for the first time on disc. The release is a handsome 85th birthday tribute to this distinguished singer.
John Quinn
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Contents
Im Frühling
Erster Verlust
Dass sie hier gewesen
Der Einsame
Nachtviolen
An mein Herz
Die gefangenen Sänger
An den Mond, D.193
Der blinde Knabe
Über Wildemann
Vor meiner Wiege
Bei dir allein!
Die Liebe hat gelogen
Nähe des Geliebten
Alinde
Ihr Bild
Das Fischermädchen
Nacht und Träume
Stimme der Liebe
Sei mir gegrüsst
