Tenor Ian Bostridge Sings Schumann

An important event in this season's vocal offerings is the return of British tenor Ian Bostridge to Toronto. It was 2005 when the tenor was last here, in an all-Schubert program at Roy Thomson Hall as part of the now sadly defunct International Vocal Series. At the keyboard was Julius Drake. This time around, Bostridge will be singing Schumann and Brahms, and his collaborative pianist is once again Mr. Drake. The centerpiece of the first half is the Schumann Liederkreis Op. 24, not the more popular Eichendorff cycle Op. 39. The second half consists of thirteen Brahms songs. For those new to Ian Bostridge onstage, his mannerisms can appear unusual and take some getting used to. He sings as if in a trance, with rather unusual body movements and not a great deal of communication with the audience. There are other singers who fall into this mode, such as Wolfgang Holzmair, but Bostridge is the more extreme. However, his mannerisms do not come from any artifice but from a deep understanding and connection to the music and the text. Here is Bostridge and Drake in Schumann's "Stille Tranen" recorded around the time of his last appearance in Toronto. The upcoming recital takes place on Sunday March 4 3:00 p.m. at the Royal Conservatory of Music's Koerner Hall. http://performance.rcmusic.ca/ Joseph K. So