Konzert Barbican Centre London – November 2015

"Schwanewilms presented a Countess who could hardly be more different from Renée Flemming in the role. Concerned less with the dubious appeals of her two suitors, poet and musician, than what making the choince will mean to her, she sang herself into a bind of intense loneliness and vulnerability (…)."

www.amati.com, Peter Quantrill, 17. November 2015

Capriccio – Barbican Centre, London

„In fact, Schwanewilms was simply magnificent. (…) It was in fact the perfect complement to Schwanewilms’ stunningly pure, powerful voice, a sound in itself perfectly Straussian.  Schwanewilms’ tuning was also impeccable, but what shone out like a laser beam was her clear and intuitive understanding of the import of the Countess’s final moments in the opera.

The outpourings of the central part of the excerpt revealed a true Strauss soprano. In the full voice of the later stages Schwanewilms was simply mesmeric; yet her unfolding of “Du Spiegelbild” was as delicate as a thread of spun gold.“

Seen and Heard International, Colin Clarke, November 14, 2015

CD – Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder

Anne Schwanewilms places Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder  where music goes beyond music. She describes the five-part song-cycle as five stages of grieving, in which a whole world of emotion – from sorrow to disbelief, from horror to rage – is contained. The 25-minute farewell becomes an intimate dialogue with her accompanist Malcolm Martineau, in which voice and piano complement each other in diffidence and searching. The sheer speechlessness becomes sound that leaves the listener dumb.
 
The piano version takes us close to the elusive heart of Mahler’s emotional world. Without the glamorous colours and pain-easing detail of the orchestral transcription, we have here the very essence of the grief itself. This is ideal for a singer like Schwanewilms, who has never feared to show her own vulnerability. The combination of vigour and fragility in ‘In diesem Wetter’, the maternal warmth in ‘Wenn dein Mütterlein’, the poetic unearthliness in ‘Nun will sie Sonn’ so hell aufgeh’n ‘– allow a more complete interpretation of the Kindertotenlieder than seemed conceivable.
 
The Rückert Lieder also make perfect territory for the emotional depths that Schwanewilms invariably explores. The religious ecstasy of ‘Um Mitternacht’ is  beyond praise, and ‘Ich bin der Welt abhanden bekommen’ creates a moment when time and existence itself seem to stop. Martineau senses and complements the singer superbly. His own artistic approach, too, is never constrained, and his lyrical potential never exhausted. On the contrary, both allow him to paint a bold palette of feelings. ‘Liebst du um Schönheit’ is another undoubted  high point. The lighter, Des Knaben Wunderhorn songs, like ‘Scheiden und Meiden’, find Schwanewilms less effulgent, although here, too, the duo command Mahler’s lusty characterisations exceptionally well.  This recital sets a benchmark in Mahler recordings for many years to come.
 
As prologue to Mahler’s manifold vision of heartfelt sorrow, Schwanewilms chooses Schoenberg’s Opus 2. She fills this rather mystical template with an enigmatic singing, while Martineau supports her with the tact  he has to his finger-tips. The partnership  begins with an unusually intense ‘Erwartung’ and delivers a musical revelation…

Jan-Jakob Delanoye
© Cutting Edge – 2 augustus 2015

CD – Kindertotenlieder with Anne Schwanewilms

“Malcolm Martineau provides piano accompaniment of a variety and intimacy that suits the songs perfectly, perhaps more so than the usual orchestra version. Schwanewilms has lovely, floated high notes. She interprets with perception, and sings with heartbreaking purity.”

Fiona Maddocks, The Observer, London, July 26, 2015