Concert season begins: Thomas Stimmel, Bjarni Bjarnason captivate audience

Pieces performed ranged from Schumann to Shakespeare, Brahms to the Bible, and even Billy Joel.

ISLAMABAD: The German Embassy hosted its first concert of 2016 on Thursday, as German Thomas Stimmel and Icelander Bjarni Frimann Bjarnason performed in front of an audience of diplomats and local residents.

Stimmel, a Munich-born baritone and choral conductor who trained in his home country provided the vocals, with Reykjavik-born Bjarnason — trained in Iceland and Germany — playing the piano.

The embassy has regularly held concerts featuring Western classical music in Islamabad, offering Europeans in the city fond memories of home, while simultaneously offering Pakistanis a chance to listen to musical styles that are normally hard to come by here.

German Ambassador Ina Lepel welcomed the audience with a short speech, noting how happy she was to be able to invite “two wonderful musicians from Germany”.



Stimmel and Bjarnason then gave a short overview of the set the duo would perform, while noting that it was a great pleasure to perform in Pakistan. “We are very happy to be here,” Stimmel said.

The first song cycle performed was Liederkreis, Opus 39 by Robert Schumann, with the lyrics taken from poetry by Joseph Eichendorff.

This was followed by a sampling from a longer Schumann piece, Wilhelm Meister, with lyrics from JW Goethe.

The powerful German pieces were appreciated by the audience, despite the language barrier.

The next two pieces were more upbeat and in English — ‘Let Us Garlands Bring’ by Gerald Finzi, with lyrics taken from William Shakespeare, followed by John Ireland’s ‘Sea Fever’, with lyrics by John Masefield.

The second half began with a fitting tribute to victims of the recent terrorist attack in Lahore — Johannes Brahms’s ‘Vier Ernste Gesange’ against lyrics taken from the Old Testament.

Stimmel noted that the lyrics convey the idea that love must conquer.

This was followed up by Gustav Mahler’s ‘Ruckert Lieder’, and after a thunderous round of applause, the duo returned to perform an encore. Bjarnson said, “It was a big pleasure for us to come to Pakistan... and we would sing a popular song as an encore to send you home with feelings of joy and hope, knowing there are so many wonderful people on this earth you can meet tomorrow.” The song turned out to be a Billy Joel classic, ‘And So It Goes’.

After the concert, the musicians had a casual conversation with The Express Tribune, in which they highlighted how different Pakistan is from what they see on the media — which only highlights the negatives — and how nice and appreciative Pakistanis in the audience were.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 2^nd, 2016.