Nature and Dreams – Corinna Scheurle and Hanna Bachmann Paid Thanks with a Romantic Recital Evening

Concert Review by Silvia Thurner, July 4th 2019, Magazine ‘Kultur’, Online Edition

Every year the Richard Wagner Society (Vorarlberg) acknowledges outstanding young musicians and singers and makes it possible for them, among other things, to visit operas at the Bayreuth Festival. Mezzo-soprano Corinna Scheurle as well as pianist Hanna Bachmann were more than happy to accept this acknowledgement over the past two years. They duly showed their appreciation with a recital evening in the Vorarlberg Museum.

A special arrangement had been rehearsed. On the one hand they interpreted very well-known songs by Robert Schumann and Gustav Mahler, while on the other hand there was an unknown sonata of Richard Wagner to discover. The young artists’ performance was a joy of musical statement however, they surprised with their selection of pieces.

Mezzo-soprano Corinna Scheurle and pianist Hanna Bachmann have already successfully launched their careers. The mezzo-soprano is set to become a member of the Ensemble of the Bavarian State Opera in Munich this coming September. Recently Hanna Bachmann enjoyed much acclaim for her two CDs and performs concerts internationally. […]

Varied Piano Pieces
Hanna Bachmann arranged her piano pieces full of wit and underlined many construed passages in Schumann’s Liederkreis. Especially in Mahler’s songs the harmonious colours of the musical statement were accentuated.
The choice of performed Liederzyklen of Schumann and Mahler gave rise to surpriseseeing as the songs are very well known and due to their sophisticated and compositional attributes make demands upon both performers. […]

Communicative Piano Pieces
Furthermore, the audience could get to know a virtually unknown piano sonata in A flat major (WWV 85) by Richard Wagner. This poetical injected piece was played by Hanna Bachmann with a narrative flow and thus was able to accentuate the dramatical curve of this communicative piece. The piano, which was provided by the Vorarlberg Museum, soon reaching its limits playing the vividly shaped escalation of comparison in this piece.
Hanna Bachmann played Beethoven’s ‘Andante’ for the piano in F major (WoO 57) subtly, stressing the pastoral expression of content, which flourishes from the ambivalence between ‘floating’ repetition of tonal sound but nevertheless remaining in touch with reality, and crystallizing itself in the main theme with internalized pathos.
The highlight of the evening was the piano sonata in g minor, op 22. The pianist performed the themes vividly and dynamically. The acoustic colour change at the beginning of the slow movement, the meaningful open ending as well as the impetuous character of the scherzo made everyone sit up and take note!
The full-circle to Richard Wagner was completed harmoniously by Corinna Scheurle and Hanna Bachmann with Wagner’s Wesendoncklied ‚Träume‘.