A sonorous sound reverberates across borders

German baritone Matthias Goerne, who stands "among the all-time great interpreters of Schubert's Lieder" according to the esteemed global music label DG, is touring China, performing his most celebrated repertoire, starting with two recent concerts in Shanghai.

The first was a Jan 5 recital featuring Die schone Mullerin (The Beautiful Maid of the Mill) by Franz Schubert (1797-1828), accompanied by Chinese pianist Chen Sa.

On Sunday evening, he presented the song cycle Des Knaben Wunderhorn (The Boy's Magic Horn) by Gustav Mahler (1860-1911), accompanied by the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra under the baton of its music director Yu Long.

He collaborated with Chen again in Changsha, Hunan province, on Thursday, then on Saturday he will work with the China Philharmonic Orchestra and sing Des Knaben Wunderhorn under the baton of Huang Yi.

Goerne has worked with such celebrated musicians as Vladimir Ashkenazy, Alfred Brendel and Christoph Eschenbach, and praised Chen as "not just a world-class pianist but a world-class artist", for "the sweetness of tone" and "the perfect control to play in pianissimo".

"It is astonishing how open her understanding is. Her heart and emotions are connected with this wonderful music, although the Schubert songs are not her main repertoire," he said.

Last year, when the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra released its new music season for 2024, Goerne was the first musician recommended by its music director, Yu, as a topnotch artist. One of the most sought-after vocalists in the world, Goerne has performed with leading orchestras, conductors and pianists around the globe, and has taken the stage frequently at renowned festivals and concert halls, such as the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London and the Vienna State Opera in Austria.

His recordings have won four Grammy nominations, an ICMA award, a Gramophone Award and the BBC Music Magazine Vocal Award in 2017.

Speaking about his love of Schubert's art songs, Goerne said that the composer was talking about the lives of human beings in the most perfect way, with all his emotions and all kinds of stylistic possibilities.

"He was describing it in a way that everybody on this planet, when he is really listening to this music, will find himself in it," Goerne told journalists before his second concert in Shanghai.

Although Schubert had a very complicated, desperate and sometimes lonely and sad life, he never became cynical and depression didn't take over his music.

"There is always something very positive, saying 'yes' to life, in Schubert's celebrated lieder repertoire, such as Die schone Mullerin and Winterreise," Goerne said.

About Mahler, Goerne said that in composing repertoires like Des Knaben Wunderhorn, he "used a big orchestra instead of the piano and then expected the orchestra to be flexible like the pianists", which no other composer had done before.