Extraordinary chemistry at work in Boesch and Martineau’s compelling double act.

Utzon Room, Sydney Opera House
June 28, 2015

We embark on a journey and we don’t really know where it will take us. It’s not that we have a clear plan. I really don’t know what the emotional journey is going to be, and I don’t want to know.

This is how Austrian baritone and lieder specialist Florian Boesch describes the special magic of his partnership with Scottish pianist Malcolm Martineau who have been touring Australia performing Schubert’s three great song cycles.

“Working with Malcolm is the greatest privilege I can imagine. In him different qualities come together which are all crucial. He is unbelievably brilliant as a pianist – he can play what he feels.

“There is no interpretation between his emotional experience and what he plays – he plays in real time,” the singer says.

There is no doubt that there is an extraordinary chemistry at work here. Both are great musicians prepared to take risks. They relish daring Thelonius Monk-like changes of tempo, significant pauses and pushing the poetic line to its limits, but always with taste and a reverence for their material.

This all makes for edge-of-the-seat...