Tenor Piotr Beczała reminds London what a real star sounds like
Piotr Beczała Wigmore Hall
From Salzburg to Munich and the Metropolitan Opera, the Polish tenor Piotr Beczała is a soughtafter star, but his London appearances have been limited. This Wigmore Hall recital, then, was a good showcase for his elegant art: no other leading tenor today has cultivated his voice with more care, and his old-fashioned virtues were much in evidence.
It is not only Beczała’s vocal manners that recall some of his great predecessors: his platform manner seems almost studiously like a throwback as well. The opening of his programme reinforced that further, with his brightly focused tone tracing a graceful line in three “arie antiche” by Stefano Donaudy. Beczała is the sort of artist who can bring meaningful shape to the most outwardly straightforward of strophic songs.
In the vastly experienced pianist Helmut Deutsch, he had a like-minded partner, capable of projecting something interesting in a simple accompaniment. With growing intensity, they delivered a set from Wolf-ferrari’s Rispetti, which, though based on Tuscan folk poetry, bear witness to the composer’s halfvenetian roots. Beczała’s otherwise impeccable singing was compromised only by a little dryness when he went up soft and high.
Responding to something deeper in their selection of Respighi songs, Beczała added vocal colour and Deutsch relished the pianistic richness. They made Lagrime, with its snow-cold kiss, the musical equivalent of an Italian symbolist painting. Beczała opened up magnificently as the troubadour of Stornellatrice, and Deutsch found Debussy-like sonorities in the beating rain of Pioggia. These were the highlights of an all-italian first half, which also revealed uncommon depths in songs by Tosti.
Balancing this, the all-polish second half began in symbolist mode with Szymanowski’s Op. 2 settings of the Young Poland poet Kazimierz Przerwatetmajer; this most musically advanced part of the programme was epitomised by the originality of Sometimes, When Long I Drowsily Dream. The same text had, just a few years previously, been treated with slightly lighter refinement by Karłowicz, whose songs here showed again what a fascinating composer he might have become had he not died young in an avalanche.
On the eve of his bicentenary, Poland’s most beloved song composer, Moniuszko, rounded off the evening with delicious Slavonic lilt. At his most natural here, Beczała revelled in this music for its special appeal, and for the opportunity it gave him of reminding London what an authentic star sounds like. The Wigmore Hall’s Song Recital Series continues. Details: wigmore-hall.org.uk