MUSIC REVIEWS : Holzmair Lives Up to Billing

Before his Los Angeles debut Monday at the University Synagogue in Brentwood, Austrian baritone Wolfgang Holzmair had been heralded as a major talent in San Francisco, where he sang in the Brahms Requiem in September, and in his U.S. debut in a New York recital at the Frick Museum last January.

The tall, handsome Austrian, who is in his early 40s, amply confirmed that impression in offering a youthful and virile--and uninterrupted--interpretation of Schubert’s “Die Schone Mullerin.”

The voice showed strength, vibrancy, flexibility and focus. There was evenness of warm tone throughout the range and at all dynamic levels, and while it was not always deeply nuanced, his interpretation of character and text usually proved intelligent.

The progress from exuberant youthfulness to final catastrophe was carefully calibrated, although Holzmair may have misjudged his own power in his harsh, vigorous projection of jealousy and anger in “Der Jager” and “Eifersucht und Stolz.”

But his restraint in the ensuing “Trockne Blumen,” the lovely, differently lighter voices in “Der Muller and der Bach” and the gentle benediction of the closing “Des Baches Wiegenlied” made generous amends.

Despite a muddy-sounding Steinway, pianist Thomas Palm generally provided Holzmair with sensitive and supportive accompaniment.