Raising a Powerful, Expressive Voice Bass-baritone Thomas Quasthoff's local debut demonstrates big talent Joshua Kosman, SF Chronicle Music Critic Tuesday, March 14, 2000 Thomas Quasthoff's remarkable debut recital in Berkeley's Hertz Hall on Sunday afternoon was more than simply two hours of magnificent music making. It was also a news flash, a public announcement that the vocal landscape has permanently changed -- in a thrilling way. With his powerful but exquisitely modulated tone, his fierce intelligence and his personable stage manner, the German bass-baritone is one of the most exciting artists to emerge in the musical world in years. At a time when each new baritone seems to be hailed as the next revelation, Quasthoff is the genuine article, a performer of enormous -- indeed unnerving -- technical and expressive resources. The standard just got a little higher for everyone. At 40, Quasthoff is not really a new face. His CDs -- especially a stunning account of Schubert's "Winterreise" on RCA Victor -- have been given plenty of notice, and enterprising Bay Area denizens heard his first local appearance with the Santa Rosa Symphony a year ago in Britten's "War Requiem." But the Berkeley recital, presented by the ever-prescient folks at Cal Performances, offered the first chance to savor Quasthoff's artistry up close and at length. It was a triumph. Accompanied with fervor and style by pianist Justus Zeyen, Quasthoff regaled an appreciative audience with songs by Brahms, Liszt, Debussy and Ravel. Some of those songs, especially the opening set of Brahms' Op. 32, boomed forth a bit overwhelmingly for the intimate hall. But all of them gained from Quasthoff's combination of vocal heft and interpretive clarity. Whether Quasthoff will be able to apply those gifts to the operatic repertoire -- and if so, how -- remains an open and slightly freighted question. As a result of his mother's use of thalidomide during pregnancy, Quasthoff stands about 4 feet tall, with foreshortened arms, malformed hands and bandy legs that give him a laborious, rolling gait. In Hertz Hall, he sang from atop a makeshift platform, with a music stand in front of him, even though he rarely seemed to consult the music. But the effect of his physical presence dissolved within seconds, driven off not only by his musical wizardry but also by his easy, charming rapport with the audience. "Don't leave, you'll miss something!" he cried to a few patrons who straggled out after the first encore. The most rewarding parts of the recital were those that came closest to an operatic vein, the bel canto stylings of Liszt's "Three Petrarch Sonnets" and the dramatic byplay of Ravel's "Don Quichotte a Dulcinee." In the Liszt songs, which are concert arias in all but name, Quasthoff combined forthright oratory with an ingratiating lyricism. The Ravel set found him at his most eloquent, whether wooing his beloved with extraordinary charm in the "Chanson romanesque" or exploding in drunken high spirits in the "Chanson a boire." Debussy's "Trois Ballades de Francois Villon" benefited from the close partnership between Quasthoff and Zeyen, whose playing was a mix of high profile and sensitivity. The third song, with its paean to the chatty virtuosity of Parisian women, tapped Quasthoff's comic gifts. For those who stayed, there were three resplendent encores, including Liszt's "Es muss ein Wunderbares sein" and Brahms' "Auf dem Kirchhofe." But the crowning glory was a majestic account of "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot," which exploited Quasthoff's prodigious range and his ability to invest any music with extraordinary spiritual depth. .. Janos Gereben/SF [log in to unmask]