A journey in the Lied

by Susanne Krekel

Sankt Gallen, on 14th November 2021 - Having heard Mona Somm as a wonderful Brünnhilde years ago, we were looking forwards to hearing her again, and in a lied recital, too. Her interpretations of lieder by Berg, Zemlinsky and Schönberg were part of a series of concerts, named Hoffnung and dedicated to the music of the early 20th century. The concert of November 14th began with Skrjabin’s Vers la Flamme, and his piano sonata no 4, played by Daria Kovaleva. We were then treated to a scenic reading of Marina Zwetajeva’s poetry cycle „The friend”, dedicated to her lover Sofia Parnok. Anna Nowak is doubtlessly a great actor, but do poems really need to be acted out, including costumes, props, and the dismantling of their rhythm? It seemed to us that less would have been more in this case, and that a shortening of the text would also have suited the purpose.

After a break, we came to the second part of the program. Had we been sitting quietly in our seats through the first part, Mona Somm now took us firmly by the hand, and, with her wonderful lush and warm voice took us to some strange and beautiful places. Alban Berg’s early lieder Op 2 express something between Sehnsucht and hope, and already Mona Somm had her public in a state of breathless anticipation. Zemlinsky’s songs on poems by Maurice Maeterlinck are a collection of stories of death and love, and again, Mona Somm inhabited all of the characters and brought them to life in such a way that we felt magically rushed away, to Vienna before the first World War, so a slightly decadent world that already intuited its coming end.

Finally she gave us goosebumps with the song of the turtle dove from Schönberg’s Gurre Lieder. Incredibly moving is the complaint of the turtle dove that describes the discovery of the death of Tove, and the pain of her lover and king; incredibly moving also Mona Somm’s interpretation tonight, accompanied by Marco Rapetti, discreetly powerful at the piano. Rapetti, it has to be said, is a fantastic pianist in his own right, and it’s a pity that we did not get to hear him tonight in at least one solo piece.

It has been wonderful, however, to hear Mona Somm again, and that was the main treat tonight.