BRITTEN Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings
Britten Sinfonia/Harmonia Mundi CD
June 2012
These performances of the Serenade of for Tenor, Horn & Strings and the Nocturne are of the utmost sensitivity... "On a poet's lips I slept", sings Padmore at the start of the Nocturne, and that is just how it seems in these intimate and poetic performances..the sense of poems comes across with extra immediacy, as if Padmore has read the texts many times over before fitting them to the music. There is much beauty here..'Dies Natalis', to which he brings the same rapt concentration and verbal detail...Highly recommended.
BRITTEN War Requiem
CBSO,Andris Nelsons at Coventry Cathedral
June 2012
I have rarely heard the fiendish ascent at the end of the Agnus Dei sung more sweetly or securely than Padmore managed here.
BACH St Matthew Passion
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra/Sir Simon Rattle DVD
May 2012
...the penetrating dramatic intensity he marshalls. I cannot imagine how Padmore managed to sing his last words of Part 1 so delicately while lying stretched on the coffin-size box. Even if he were mute, his eyes, sad and piercing, could convey most of the story.
BRITTEN Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings
Britten Sinfonia/Harmonia Mundi CD
April 2012
Padmore is gifted with exceptional intelligence in thinking his way into a poem...is sensitive to the wide-ranging demands of the poetry...Padmore has a sure touch in making Finzi's impassioned melodic lines sound both beautiful and as easy as conversation...These are beautiful and perceptive performances, rewardingly matching poetic insight to musical understanding.
BRITTEN War Requiem
Philharmonia/Lorin Maazel at the Royal Festival Hall
March 2012
What lifted the performance to a special level, however, was the singing of Mark Padmore and Matthias Goerne...Padmore was outstanding, the clarity and authority of his singing revealed in every contribution, nowhere more so than in the way he caressed the word 'gently' at the start of Owen's Futility; or in the tender weight he brought to the msot exposed tenor moment in the whole piece, the supercharged rising phrase of Dona Nobis Pacem...
BRITTEN War Requiem
Philharmonia/Lorin Maazel at the Royal Festival Hall
March 2012
For Padmore, no praise could be too high. The piercing beauty of "But they who love the greater love", soaring eloquently to the final "Dona Nobis Pacem" was unforgettable.
BRITTEN Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings
Basel Chamber Orchestra/Wigmore Hall
January 2012
Padmore's lean yet forceful voice cut a swath through Britten's challenging writing, maintaining tension in the high-wire act of the creepy Dirge and applying an ethereal sensuousness to the uneasy insomnia of the final Keats'sonnet...Padmore's other solo turn consisted of three of Purcell's devotional songs in arrangements by the contemporary Swiss composer Lukas Langlotz...the tenor voiced them impeccably.
SCHUBERT Schwanengesang
Paul Lewis, Harmonia Mundi CD
November 2011
Padmore's silvery, keen-edged tenor, grace of phrase and sensitivity to mood and verbal nuance are ideal here.....Padmore and Lewis rise magnificently to the challenge of the darker Rellstab songs and the visionary Heine settings...the intense, aching legato, sustained through the slowest possible tempo, of Am Meer..its fine balance of subtlety and devastating emotional directness...a delectable, dancing Die Sterne.
BACH St John Passion
English Baroque Soloists, Sir John Eliot Gardiner
Soli Deo Gloria CD
July 2011
Mark Padmore's Evangelist is both ringingly true adn actuely observed.
VAUGHAN WILLIAMS and RAVEL Mark Padmore and Friends
Roger Vignoles, Navarro String Quartet, Queen Elizabeth Hall
May 2011
After 20 years of knocking aobut with the best in the business, the tenor Mark Padmore has some distinguished people to call on..He also has a brilliant recipe...opening with Ravel's 'Cinq melodies populaires greques' the voice soared gracefully above; each song..was a perfectly realised miniature..Padmore was on top form. It was less the beauty of his sound than its burning intensity, the sense of emotion stripped bare..All in all two hours in a sound-world of exceptional refinement and purity.
SCHUMANN Liederkreis and Dichterliebe
Lincoln Center, New York
December 2010
Mr Padmore approached Schumann's songs thoughtfully, creating a distinct coloration and sense of character for each but also charting each cycle's emotional journey.
SCHUBERT Die Schöne Müllerin
Harmonia Mundi CD
August 2010
Hot on the heels of last year's superb recording of Winterreise, Mark Padmore and Paul Lewis have turned their attentions to Schubert's earlier song cycle. Singer and pianist are perfectly matched in temperament and musicality, and every note has been lovingly considered...exquisitely thoughtful and refined...The reflective melancholy of Die liebe Farbe is ravishingly painted...A great Schöne Müllerin..
DOWLAND DOWLAND AND BEYOND
Elizabeth Kenny + Lawrence Power
Wigmore Hall
July 2010
But the bulk of the programme fell to Padmore and Kenny, intimately attuned to one another in their interpretations..Padmore's ability to meld words and notes into a single vocal gesture was outstanding, making of each item a small but delineated act of interior revelation.
SCHUMANN Bicentenary Recital
Wigmore Hall
May 2010
Royal and Padmore were astute in marrying the varied texts with Schumann's carefully chosen notes, and delivering both with the highest discrimination and poise. Their immaculate presentation made every song a delight.
BACH St Matthew Passion
CBSO Sir Simon Rattle
March 2010
In Mark Padmore as the evangelist, Rattle had a powerful protagonist. Singing from memory (quite a feat, even taking into account his appearance in the same role in a fully-stages Glyndebourne production), Padmore delivered an enthralling account in which his delivery became more impassioned and dramatically charged as he moved onto the crucifixion. His improvisatory freedom of dynamics and tempo, and lyrical authority, made it sound as if he really were recalling this dreadful sequence of events as they came back to him.
HENZE Six Songs from the Arabian
Wigmore Hall
January 2010
Padmore with agile pianist Andrew West wrung every drop of emotional energy from them...I left Wigmore Hall a wreck.
SCHUBERT Winterreise
Harmonia Mundi CD
Paul Lewis
November 2009
I cannot think of a journey that leads more faithfully to the cold comfort of its end. And when we get there in the performance, what an end it is.
SCHUBERT Winterreise
Harmonia Mundi CD
Paul Lewis
November 2009
Everywhere there is the send of a great occasion, of two deeply thoughtful artists pushing each other ever onwards.
SCHUBERT Winterreise
Harmonia Mundi CD
Paul Lewis
November 2009
...this is genuine art song singing at its most effective and stunningly moving...The integrity of the musicianship and effortless communicability make this perhaps the best modern tenor version of these songs to come along in a number of years.
SCHUBERT Winterreise
Harmonia Mundi CD
Paul Lewis
November 2009
The tenor Mark Padmore and the pianist Paul Lewis are an ideal partnership in this greatest of song cycles. Padmore's singing of the gentler number has a poignant lyricism that is most affecting while in the wider songs there is a sense of hysteria only just under control.
SCHUBERT Winterreise
Harmonia Mundi CD
November 2009
Apart from the sheer intelligence behind the interpretation, Padmore's voice is lustrous; gleaming but flexible, alive to nuance and color, never overdone...Their Winterreise is right up there with the absolute peaks of today's recordings and older versions too.
Britten Before Life & After
Harmonia Mundi CD
August 2009
Padmore and Roger Vignoles, his warm-toned accompanist, take a more reflective line. Tempi are slower, the emotions feel more consoling, and at the core of the cycle is some heartfelt singing in the sixth and most beautiful setting, 'Since she whom i loved'...Padmore dramatises the narrative songs with subtlety and imagination....impeccably sung.
Britten Before Life & After
Harmonia Mundi
CD
August 2009
Mark Padmore's grave concentrate of text and tone is artfully shadowed by Roger Vignoles in this recording of Winter Words and The Holy Sonnets of John Donne.
Schubert Winterreise D911
August 2009
The tenor Mark Padmore and the pianist Paul Lewis are an ideal partnership in this greatest of song cycles. Padmore's singing of the gentler number has a poignant lyricism that is most affecting while in the wider songs there is a sense of hysteria only just under control. The recording quality is of the highest order.
Schubert Winterreise D911
Harmonia Mundi
CD
August 2009
Over and over again he depicts the emotional contrasts between experiencing the world's glory and the realties of life's cruel turns. His usual dead-on intonation is sacrificed for pitchless exclamations in the most agitated utterances of 'Der Lindenbaum', followed by a most impressively controlled mastery of the considerable expressive and technical challenges of 'Wasserflut'. 'Auf dem Flusse' and 'Irrlicht' show Padmore's sensitivity and ability to capture the unique atmosphere of a song, of course in close collaboration with his piano partner Paul Lewis.
Britten Before Life & After
Harmonia Mundi
CD Review
July 2009
Padmore is perhaps today's outstanding interpreter of the repertoire Britten wrote for his musical and life partner, Peter Pears. His distinctive timbre, his colouring of words and his understanding of the drama of Britten's word-setting make him an ideal exponent of the Holy Sonnets of John Donne...Padmore and Vignoles burrow deeply into Donne's "blacke soule", finding the right tone for each of the nine settings. Padmore's eloquence and depth of feeling surface movingly in Donne's lament for his dead wife, 'Since She Whom I Loved'. And both musicians rice to the intense defiance of the climactic 'Death, thou shalt die', in the final song.
BACH St Matthew Passion
Royal Festival Hall
April 2009
But it was the astonishing Mark Padmore, whose every performance as the Evangelist seems to exceed the one before, who propelled the piece to a different spiritual plane. Intense, almost disembodied from his task, he narrated the familiar story with a wonder, reverence and urgency that held the audience spellbound, transported by the sheer beauty of his sound.
BACH St Matthew Passion
St George's Bristol
April 2009
Padmore's approach makes clear the importance of the text in shaping the nature and mood of the interpretation. His Evangelist was exemplary; there was a freshness and spontaneity to the way the words emerged, and they were delivered with piercing clarity.
MARTYNOV Vita Nuova
Alice Tully Hall, New York
March 2009
The performance, with tenor and early music star Mark Padmore as a stunning Dante paying tribute to his Beatrice, was, I thought, gripping from beginning to end.
MARTYNOV Vita Nuova
Alice Tully Hall, New York
March 2009
Most of the chanting is done by the character of Dante, here the tenor Mark Padmore in sensitive account of demanding music.
SCHUBERT Die Schöne Müllerin
Alice Tully Hall, New York
February 2009
Mr Padmore deployed his light voice with tonal allure and clarity. He deftly calculated the emotive impact of his singing across the cycle's duration.
SCHUMANN Songs from Myrthen Op.24
Bath Mozartfest
November 2008
Padmore brought his special brand of introverted intensity to From Hebrew Melodies, an undeservedly neglected song, and Due bist wie enie Blume.
Britten/Birtwistle/Handel Various
Queen Elizabeth Hall + Britten Sinfonia
October 2008
Mark Padmore sang Birtwistle, Handel and Britten with equal assurance, unswerving musicality and fabulously clear enunciation.
Britten/Birtwistle/Handel Various
Queen Elizabeth Hall + Britten Sinfonia
October 2008
Padmore's great gift, apart from his prodigious technical ability, whether to float a line with perfect legato or to enter pianissimo at the top of his range, is to sing from the soul.
Bach Cantatas
Queen's Hall, Edinburgh Festival
August 2007
With his new group of instrumentalists, whimsically titled 'Walking to Löbeck' (in honour of the boy Bach's epic trek to meet the ageing Buxtehude), the tenor Mark Padmore presented a riveting Queen's Hall recital in which he placed Bach cantatas in the context of music by his older contemporaries, Buxtehude and Kuhnau. True, the subject-matter was hardly a barrel-organ of laughs: man's constant sinning, his general worthlessness, and his inescapable decay. Dress code: sackcloth and ashes.
Yet, I can't remember the last time I was so exhilarated by solo Bach singing. Padmore's sinuous, sometimes almost fragile voice is such an ideal instrument for this composer, his musical and spiritual acumen so finely honed, his own pensive persona apparently so perfectly attuned to the sentiments he conveys.
Yet, I can't remember the last time I was so exhilarated by solo Bach singing. Padmore's sinuous, sometimes almost fragile voice is such an ideal instrument for this composer, his musical and spiritual acumen so finely honed, his own pensive persona apparently so perfectly attuned to the sentiments he conveys.
Handel As Steals the Morn...
Editor's Choice CD
May 2007
Mark Padmore uses his extraordinary diction and whispering chamber-like intimacy to remind us that the most exalted tenor arias from the operas and oratorios can achieve true potency out of context. Padmore is a master of taste, restraint and unassuming gesture. Indeed, it is the joy in conveying the emotional core of each situation which marks out this disc.
Handel As Steals the Morn
May 2007
Mark Padmore is no stranger to enthusiasts for Baroque opera and cantatas. His contributions are plentiful and distinguished. Now this self-effacing artist offers us a disc of arias and scenes from Handel’s operas, oratorios and odes sensitively accompanied by The English Concert under Andrew Manze’s direction. This is one of the most alluring recitals of its kind that has come my way for a very long time. Handel, of course, has a lot to do with it. Padmore reveals the composer’s enormous affective range in singing that is variously passionate, tender and ardent. An outstanding recital.
Heroes of the Concert Hall
April 2007
I am reminded of what was perhaps my greatest tenor moment of the past few years. It wasn’t in opera at all, but a performance of Bach’s B minor Mass at the Proms, with Sir John Eliot Gardiner conducting the Monteverdi Choir. The ‘Benedictus’ strikes me as a terrible pitfall for tenors. Its tessitura is consistently high, its lines are long and angular. Many if not most tenors sing it as though gripped with fear. They project over-forcefully. The voice tightens. The pace is often hurried. But on this occasion the soloist seemed perfectly relaxed, aptly contemplative. He hurried nothing. He dared to sing very quietly, drawing his audience into a very private devotional world. He relished and made wonderfully expressive the twisting, turning shapes of Bach’s lines. He produced an exquisitely sweet, smooth sound. And he moved everyone in the packed hall. His name had no Latin ring to it. It was Mark Padmore.
Classical CD of the Week
April 2007
Mark Padmore …. has always excelled in tenderness, and he is ideally dulcet in such Handelian favourites as “Where’er you walk” from Semele and Jephtha’s seraphic “Waft her, Angels”. But there is now a touch of metal in Padmore’s tone, a hint of Italianate vibrancy, as you can hear in Jephtha’s victory aria and Bajazet’s tremendous death scene from Tamerlano – a performance of gripping intensity and emotional truth.
Alec Roth Songs in the Time of War
June 2006
Padmore’s tenor – eloquent earlier with Gareth Hulse’s oboe in Vaughan William’s late, spare Ten Blake Songs – was in its element here. We had the word sheet; we didn’t need it. He projected feelings just as powerfully as words, shaping his phrases at the voice’s high end with a lyrical dolour worthy of the poet.
Bach St John Passion
Salzburg Easter Festival with Simon Rattle and Berlin Philharmonic
May 2006
Vokaler Kernpunkt war der Evangelist von Mark Padmore: mühelos hoch, schlank, perfekt erzählend und mit wunderbarer ‘Freiheit’ im Vortrag. Padmore sang auch die Tenorarien mit großer Innigkeit.
Mozart La Clemenza di Tito
Harmonia Mundi recording
April 2006
Where this set undoubtedly scores over the DG is in the singing of Titus by Mark Padmore, an elegant, beautifully poised performance. His phrasing is immaculate and unforced, his tone unfailingly true and pleasing - sample his aria Del piu sublime soglio and you will hear Mozart-singing of a very high order.
Handel Jephtha
Welsh National Opera
March 2006
Mark Padmore's Jephtha remains a fine study of power and vulnerability...
Alfred Brendel Interview
March 2006
Yet I know many remarkable young musicians. Till Fellner, Paul Lewis, Elisabeth Batiashvili and the singer Mark Padmore all, in my opinion, continue my own quest and tradition.
Bach St John Passion
Orchestra of the Age of Englightenment with I Fagiolini, Aldeburgh
September 2005
Padmore's performance was the centrepiece, and his Evangelist unfolded the Passion story with inexorable power.
Tom Service, The Guardian
With the orchestra on one side, the singers on the other, and Padmore (singing the Evangelist with wonderful lightness) in the middle with the continuo, the rapport seemed near-telepathic.
Tom Service, The Guardian
With the orchestra on one side, the singers on the other, and Padmore (singing the Evangelist with wonderful lightness) in the middle with the continuo, the rapport seemed near-telepathic.
Handel Jephtha
English National Opera
May 2005
... one achingly beautiful stanza succeeds the other, and the purity of Padmore's delivery here is a thing of wonder.
Benjamin Britten Turn of the Screw DVD
May 2005
Mark Padmore’s unshaven, dishevelled Quint is a memorable creation; his diction is immaculate and his vocalism spellbinding in the florid melismata as he calls Miles from his bed in the closing scene of Act 1.
Bach St Matthew Passion
With Sir John Eliot Gardiner and Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists
March 2005
Die umfangreiche Evangelistenpartie gestaltete der Londoner Tenor Mark Padmore – eine Ausnahmeerscheinung und eine Simme von nie ermüdender Strahlkraft sowie beeindruckender Flexibilität des Ausdrucksreichtums. Für seine Darbietung erhielt Padmore Ovationen, welche die allgemeine Begeisterung des Publikums für diesen Saisonhöhepunkt noch an Stärke übertrafen.
Britten, Finzi, Tippett Song cycles
Hyperion recording with Roger Vignoles
February 2005
The finest English tenor around right now has a timbre of striking individuality and tonal purity.
Tippett Boyhood's End
The Lindsays
January 2005
Mark Padmore showed an astonishing vocal and dramatic command.
Holst Savitri
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
May 2004
He invested the cantata with a natural sense of line, even tone, and particular care for the weight and balance for every particle of the Traherne poems it sets - yet more proof that he is the finest, most musical British tenor around today.
Bach St Matthew Passion (Evangelist)
Collegium Vocale Gent with Philippe Herreweghe, Alice Tully Hall New York
March 2004
Mark Padmore, a British tenor, was excellent in the 'Passion', conveying both the lofty remove and the emotion needed in the exacting role of the Evangelist.
New York Times
Without a powerful voice in the relentlessly demanding role of the Evangelist, the St Matthew can easily fall apart. But with the plum-toned tenor Mark Padmore on the job the work didn't just stay together; it came alive. Mr Padmore is a limber young singer whose timbres can incite as easily as they can calm; on Friday, he threw himself into his role with more conviction than any singer I've ever seen.
New York Times
Without a powerful voice in the relentlessly demanding role of the Evangelist, the St Matthew can easily fall apart. But with the plum-toned tenor Mark Padmore on the job the work didn't just stay together; it came alive. Mr Padmore is a limber young singer whose timbres can incite as easily as they can calm; on Friday, he threw himself into his role with more conviction than any singer I've ever seen.
Bach Christmas Cantatas for Leipzig
Collegium Vocale Gent with Philippe Herreweghe
December 2003
Herreweghe chooses his soloists discerningly. Mark Padmore is just about the finest Bach tenor in the business today.
Recital Frick Collection
New York with Andrew West (piano)
August 2003
Mr Padmore filled the Frick's lovely performance space with a broad, full sound and a refreshingly unmannered stage presence. He has worked with many Baroque period ensembles and this experience has left its mark: he has a certain lightness of sound, a cleanness of line and a purity of tone, which made for some very refined Schubert. Schäfers Klaglied for example, had a gorgeous silken quality... he has a natural flair for the song-recital format and he brought to it a clarity of execution and a nuanced understanding of how to mingle language with lyricism.
Handel Jephtha
Welsh National Opera conducted by Paul McCreesh, directed by Katie Mitchell
May 2003
Mark Padmore's Jephtha is astonishing: this is the most sympathetic portrait of a deeply equivocal, wracked creature whose every nerve is bared. When, after his anguish, he prepares Iphis for the bonfire and sings the most caressing air (Waft her, angels), it is the most soul-wringing thing imaginable. This is real heart stopping Handel singing.
Robert Thicknesse, The Times
The variety with which they (Padmore and Mitchell) together encompass Jephtha's growing isolation is a triumph; the accuracy of Padmore's coloratura, with Paul McCreesh's players in perfect attendance, is breathtaking.
Roderic Dunnett, The Independent
Mark Padmore takes the title role, singing and acting with his usual sensitivity and intelligence; 'Waft her, angels' was heartbreakingly beautiful.
Robert Thicknesse, The Times
The variety with which they (Padmore and Mitchell) together encompass Jephtha's growing isolation is a triumph; the accuracy of Padmore's coloratura, with Paul McCreesh's players in perfect attendance, is breathtaking.
Roderic Dunnett, The Independent
Mark Padmore takes the title role, singing and acting with his usual sensitivity and intelligence; 'Waft her, angels' was heartbreakingly beautiful.
Wigmore Hall Recital
with Roger Vignoles
June 2002
This was something really special – a rapt performance of Tippett's cantata Boyhood's End six melancholy, searching Schubert songs... and five extrovert Wolf songs... Padmore's tenor is secure, with a sexy baritone edge to it; he gives volume without distortion; and he has that intensity of delivery that connects powerfully with his audience.
Bach St John Passion
with Stephan Layton at English National Opera's staged Deborah Warner production
March 2002
Mark Padmore, singing most beautifully throughout, starts out as a detached commentator and narrator, but his personal status as the disciple who Jesus loved gradually take over, and by the end he is near complete breakdown.
Bach St John Passion
with Stephan Layton at English National Opera's staged Deborah Warner production
March 2002
But the evening belongs to Mark Padmore, one of the world's finest evangelists. His tenor is crystal-clear, elastic and, at times, heart-stoppingly beautiful; he also has considerable dramatic presence.
Bach St Matthew Passion
with Paul McCreesh & Gabrieli Consort, St.John's Smith Square
March 2002
...Padmore's presence, as one of the increasingly moving and authoritative Evangelists of our time, is the bright flame at the centre of Paul McCreesh's performance... he seems to have kindled a new intensity... one which is now taking deeper breaths, and gaining both depth and breadth in its musical understanding.
Bach St Matthew Passion
with Stephen Layton, Polyphony & The Academy of Ancient Music, St.John's Smith Square
March 2002
The inadvisability of acting in scenes with children, dogs, or Gene Hackman is well-known. Now another rule should be established. Never sing in a Passion with Mark Padmore. For if he is the Evangelist, as he usually is, comparisons will not be in your favour. You will sound distant and pale.
Nothing you are given to sing will wring the heartstrings like Padmore's account of Peter denying Jesus, the cock crowing, and Peter weeping bitterly. Whether it be Bach's St Matthew Passion or the St John, Padmore's tenor will always top the bill.
Nothing you are given to sing will wring the heartstrings like Padmore's account of Peter denying Jesus, the cock crowing, and Peter weeping bitterly. Whether it be Bach's St Matthew Passion or the St John, Padmore's tenor will always top the bill.
Bach St John Passion
with Sir Simon Rattle, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
February 2002
The other tenor was Mark Padmore, whose wonderful directness stands out in crystal relief... His high notes are secure; his first aria was shattering. The tiny rein-in engineered by him with Rattle on Der allerschšnste Regenbogen (God's Rainbow) - varied on the repeat - was classic.