This BBC Lunchtime Concert began at the beginning of Strauss’ life in song with Zueignung, generally sung at the end of an evening: a farewell as opposed a greeting. But for a singer as technically assured as Brewer this is as good a warm up as any and a brief endorsement - a “dedication” – of everything to come. She and her collaborator, the always elegant Roger Vignoles, set a stately tempo and conveyed a swelling pride with Brewer simply opening to the climactic high A only to plunge with the line “sank holy upon your heart” and specifically the word “sank” to a hugely expressive E natural in chest. It’s usually the high A you remember. Not here. The heart of the matter lay deeper.
Rapture was the key to this first group of songs from Op 10 and Op 19. The dark desire of Breit’ über mein Haupt – “Unbind your Black Hair” - was unlocked in the phrasing, flowing seamlessly and quite explicitly like the woman’s ebony tresses.
The choices as well as the juxtapositions of songs were revealing and showed real understanding of how they might impact on one another. Ich liebe dich – “I Love You” – from Op 37 must be quite the strangest love song ever written, a real mini-epic, grimly heroic in the love-death vein. Brewer’s Isolde or Brünnhilde were recalled here, a steely resolve showcasing her evenness of production throughout the range – but always secondary to the spirit. And that spirit dug deep in the wonderful Richard Dehmel setting Befreit – “Released” – a great song for the mature practitioner only, a song about “letting go” elevated to the sublime. Brewer caught to perfection here the proximity of grief and ecstasy and Vignoles’ piano turned deep undulating uncertainty to solidarity. The enormous vocal crescendo on the phrase “you will bless me and weep with me” quite literally spoke volumes.
Brewer was once an elementary school teacher and she tells compelling stories with song. In the rarely heard group Gesänge des Orients she and Vignoles took us to exotic locations where the high tessitura of Ihre Augen – “Her Eyes” - and Messiaen-like ecstasy of Schwung – “Vitality” – brilliantly flirted with an alien culture. And with a nod to the season there was Die heiligen drei Könige – “The Three Holy Kings” – Heine’s earthy take on the Christmas Story which all but took Brewer back to the classroom.
But my take-home song was the familiar Wiegenlied where her caressing legato and subtle shifts of dynamics and colour sounded just like the melody was being created in the singing of it. Strauss would have loved it. Wigmore Hall certainly did.
