Matthias Goerne and I go back in time.  I have always admired his warm,
beautiful voice, great phrasing and clear diction, but the "package" was
incomplete, those parts didn't come together the way one expected from this
enormously talented singer.  Then several concerts - especially his "Des
Knaben Wunderhorn" at the Concertgebouw - turned into disappointment, an
indication of (bad) things to come.  He was doing vocally what I called a
"peacock dance in the mirror," strutting and posing, guilty of
too-muchedness, with Hampsonian excess.

Fast-forward to tonight's San Francisco Performances all-Schumann recital
in Herbst Theater, and behold an utterly captivating, artistically bold,
very "different" and flawless concert, in which Goerne easily moved into
the place I always expected/hoped for him - the singing-from-within
category of Thomas Quasthoff.  (The "model" I mentioned the very first
time I heard Goerne.)

In a simple, three-word phrase - "Mein schoener Stern" - Matthias Goerne
produced four distinct, gorgeous, colors, but that was not the "point."
There was no point, no posing, nothing extraneous, only the music, the
text, the telling of the story, the expression of a mood.  In a program
of some of Schumann's least showy songs, Goerne sang with simplicity,
humility, turning into a transparent instrument of the composer.

It's a pure, gut-level guess, but I think the singer's sudden maturity,
his transformation has something to do with his accompanist.  It may not
be possible to play music with Eric Schneider and remain self-centered or
self-conscious.  This pianist of extraordinary sensitivity and gesture-free
simplicity (physically, musically) must inspire any singer.  In Goerne's
case, it brought the very best out of him, free of those bad habits of the
past.

The whole evening was a continuous, low-key bliss - four Rueckert songs,
five songs from Op. 89, "Die Loewenbraut," five Lenau songs, the ambiguous,
sorrowful series of "Nachtlied," "Der Einseidler" and "Abendlied". . . and
no encore to change the mood - but "Liebesbotschaft" ("Love's message"),
early in the program, was sufficient onto itself.  It created a suspension
of time, encompassing all elements of a lasting musical experience.  It was
a simple, glorious, complete celebration of music and nothing but.

On Thursday, Goerne and Schneider will give an all-Schubert recital in
Herbst. It would be a musical crime to miss it.

Janos Gereben/SF, CA
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