Association of Music Lovers Organise Recital in The Peppercanister

dublin | arts and media | news report Sunday February 12, 2006 14:13 by Sean Crudden - impero sean.crudden at iol dot ie Jenkinstown, Dundalk, Co Louth. 087 9739945

First Concert in Ireland

The recital given last night by Bettina Jensen and Karola Theill in The Peppercanister was their first in Ireland. Almost certainly it will not be their last. It was "an education" for the (older) people in the audience. Maybe the performance would have been lost on younger people. However there were one or two young people there - like concert pianist Finghin Collins who really seemed to be caught up in the performance, engrossed and happy.

Bettina Jensen (soprano) and Karola Theill (pianist) performed the following program at The Peppercanister (St Stephen’s Church), Upper Mount Street, Dublin 2, last night

Franz Schubert (1797 - 1828)

Kennst du das Land D 321
Nur wer die Sehnsucht kennt D 481
Heiss mich nicht reden D 877/2
So lasst mich schienen D 877/3

Robert Schumann (1810 - 1856)

Frauenliebe und leben Op. 42 (Eight songs)

Seit ich ihn gesehen
Er, der Herrlichste von allen
Ich kann’s nicht fassen, nicht glauben
Du Ring an meinem Finger
Helft mir, ihr Schwestern
Susser Freund, du blickest mich verwundert an
An meinen Herzen, an meiner Brust
Nun hast du mir den ersten Schmertz getan

INTERVAL

Richard Strauss (1864 - 1949)

Allerseelen Op 10,8
Wiegenlied Op 41,1
Die Nacht Op10,3
Morgen Op 27,4

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 - 1791)

Ach ich fuhl, es ist verschwunden (from The Magic Flute)

Dove sono (from the opera "Le nozze di Figaro")

Carl Maria v. Weber

Wie nahte mir der Schlummer (from the opera "Der Freischutz")

Two encores were given the first of which was one of Robert Schumann’s most familiar songs. I made no note of the second encore and I forget now what it was.

The performers were both dressed in black. Bettina’s outer garment seemed to me to be a formal coat-type affair. The setting in The Peppercanister gave a certain seriousness to the occasion. The piano sounded very well.

Bettina is a sensitive, dark-haired, intelligent singer with very expressive eyes and facial features and superb singing technique. She sang very many appealing notes especially on low power. Her command of the audience and the way she used her physical stature to do this and to set the mood was exemplary. I suppose there is always a bit of ambiguity between a singer and her audience but by the end everyone seemed to like one another. Indeed it could be said that the audience - by being receptive and still at crucial moments - assisted in the creation of a satisfying number of beautifully achieved musical highlights during the course of the performance.

The style of the pianist was restrained, clipped and slightly dry. She did some cool magic on a few occasions when the piano was called in to complete and resolve a musical passage (at the end of one or two of the songs). She gave the whole recital a foundation of confidence.

To be honest there were many aspects of this performance that eluded my attention and I should really have studied the texts before the concert. There are one or two reservations in my mind that I don’t want to write about because I don’t have enough expertise and because I suspect my judgement is probably mistaken and wrong.