The Oxford Lieder festival has morphed into Oxford International Song festival, recognising the reality that its concerts have never been exclusively devoted to German song, but always included art songs from other traditions. Yet lieder still features very prominently in the programmes, and the middle weekend remains devoted to Schubert, with the centrepiece of that festival-within-a-festival this year a performance of Winterreise from the outstanding German soprano Juliane Banse, partnered by the pianist Alexander Krichel.
Banse is a rare enough recitalist in the UK to make any appearance a special occasion. Yet this was not a straightforward concert performance of this greatest of all song cycles, but the latest attempt at building a piece of music theatre around Winterreise. It seems to be a fashionable exercise at present – last year, for instance, the tenor Allan Clayton performed the cycle in front of an ever changing backdrop of paintings – yet in general those trappings tend to diminish the dramatic power of the songs themselves. But here the singer was partnered by a dancer, István Simon, and it worked wonderfully well; with choreography by Andreas Heise, it enhanced the impact of the performance in an utterly unexpected way.
