RCS, 13/01/2019
Songs by Schumann, Britten, Schubert, Quilter, Tippett, Poulenc, Horder, Dankworth, Dickinson
Nicky Spence, tenor
Malcolm Martineau, piano
This Sunday morning recital was supposed to have been given by the 2017 Cardiff Singer Catriona Morison, but we were notified earlier in the week that she had succumbed to ailment and had to cancel, and that she was to be replaced by another young Scottish singer very much in the ascendant, Nicky Spence. Having been drafted in at short notice, Spence's programme was, not surprisingly, a partial reflection of the Wigmore Hall recital he gave at the end of last month. Having seen a couple of reviews of that event, I had thought at the time that it looked like an interesting selection of songs, and so it proved to be. Half Scots poetry (Robert Burns and William Souter), and half Shakespeare, with familiar names but unfamiliar works, this is just the kind of programme one likes to see from intelligent recitalists genuinely interested in repertory, and not there just to show off the voice (or whatever other instrument; the comment is valid for any type of performer, really).
The recital began with five Burns settings by Schumann, all from 1840, the year of his marriage, and the year when his compositional muse, quite literally, burst into song. Prior to this point, he had never written any songs, indeed, rather looked down on the medium. However, the resolution of his long-standing feud with Friedrich Wieck over the issue of his engagement to Wieck's daughter Clara, and their subsequent marriage, clearly provided a new and very prolific boost to his writing. All of the big song cycles - Liederkreis, Dichterliebe, Frauenliebe und -leben - date from this year, as well as the 4-book set of Myrthen, or "myrtle leaves". This is a very broad-ranging set of songs, from various poetic sources, and Spence gave us half of the eight Burns songs, with nicely contrasting moods and all appropriately High Romantic in mode. (I may have an issue or two with the translations from Burns's Scots into German, but that's not the problem of anyone around today.) In addition to these four, there was a refreshingly spry setting of "My love is like a red, red rose", a far cry from the sentimental wallowing frequently engendered by that poem.
Who Are These Children is Benjamin Britten's last song-cycle for voice and piano, written in 1969, settings of the 20th Century Scots poet William Soutar. It's rarely performed, and I gather the issue is one of accent because, like Burns, Soutar wrote partly in standard English, and partly in Lowland Scots - of the twelve songs here, only four are in English. Soutar was in the Royal Navy during the First World War, and he emerged from that conflict with debilitating chronic arthritis which left him bed-ridden for the last decade or so of his life, and a hatred of war which comes through quite clearly in his work, and which would have resonated very clearly with the pacifist Britten. Also familiar to Britten's interests are themes of children, and of the destruction of youth, literal or metaphorical, through conflict, and it was easy to see the attraction of these texts for Britten. I admit I have some difficulty imagining Peter Pears, with his extremely precise Received Pronunciation, negotiating his way around the Scots, but that was hardly a problem for Dumfries-born Spence. The moods vary quite widely, from light to dark, and the settings are fairly sparse, with little, obsessive phrases repeating in the piano part in many of the accompaniments. Most striking was, perhaps, "Nightmare", an eerily desolate song.
The second part of the programme began with a bright, happy performance of Schubert's "An Sylvia", further lifted by Martineau's springing accompaniment, then Roger Quilter's first set of Shakespeare Songs, including the soulfully melancholy "Come away, Death", and a vibrant "Blow, blow, thou winter wind". This was the one place where I felt there was a slight problem with Spence's voice. I did think that the Quilter songs should maybe have been taken just a little higher. "Blow, blow" begins with a sort of stately peal of bells from the piano, and when Spence got to the end of the first verse - "man's ingratitude" - his voice disappeared beneath the piano. It's not like Spence doesn't have some room to spare at the top, as he demonstrated a little later on.
Next came an interesting pair, settings of the same text, "Tell me where is fancy bred" from The Merchant of Venice, by Britten and by Poulenc, set back-to-back. Britten's, from 1961. was actually written for chorus, but as it's mostly in unison, it's not hard to render it for a single voice. It's a slightly breathless, nervy setting, one might say skittish, and a complete contrast to Poulenc's calmer, more reflective version, written a couple of years prior. Tippett's Songs for Ariel also date from around this same period, and were part of the incidental music he wrote for a production of The Tempest. If the last song, "Where the bee sucks", lies heavy in the shadow of the very famous Thomas Arne setting, and seems to wrench itself free only rather awkwardly, the other two are more striking, particularly the solemnly beautiful "Full fathom five".
We ventured into songs touched with a more popular vein to round off the recital; Mervyn Horder's tango setting of "Under the Greenwood Tree", John Dankworth's "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?" - neither of which completely convinced me - and then what began like a standard performance of Schubert's version of "Hark, hark, the lark", but delightfully veered off into a rag-inspired variation from Peter Dickinson's Schubert in Blue, which worked much better for both Spence and Martineau, and led to a highly entertaining encore of Dankworth's "Dunsinane Blues". After that distinctly irreverent wrap to the Shakespeare thread, Spence and Martineau put the bow on the package with Quilter's arrangement of "Ye Banks and Braes".
Spence's voice is not one of those gorgeous natural instruments that makes you sit up and take notice from the first note, but it's a pleasing timbre, solid and rounded, well-managed and expressive, and his diction is excellent, exactly as you want it for a recitalist. Well, in truth, you want it for all aspects of singing, but clear diction is nowhere near as common or all-encompassing a concept as it should be, so I, for one, am grateful when I come across it. As for Malcolm Martineau, his credentials as one of the world's most admired accompanists hardly need further presentation. His complicity with Spence was apparent right from the start, he entered as easily into the humour of the programme as its more serious facets, his support always judiciously balanced, to deliver along with Nicky Spence an excellent exemplar of the ideal song recital.
[Next : 17th January]
Nicky Spence, tenor
Malcolm Martineau, piano
This Sunday morning recital was supposed to have been given by the 2017 Cardiff Singer Catriona Morison, but we were notified earlier in the week that she had succumbed to ailment and had to cancel, and that she was to be replaced by another young Scottish singer very much in the ascendant, Nicky Spence. Having been drafted in at short notice, Spence's programme was, not surprisingly, a partial reflection of the Wigmore Hall recital he gave at the end of last month. Having seen a couple of reviews of that event, I had thought at the time that it looked like an interesting selection of songs, and so it proved to be. Half Scots poetry (Robert Burns and William Souter), and half Shakespeare, with familiar names but unfamiliar works, this is just the kind of programme one likes to see from intelligent recitalists genuinely interested in repertory, and not there just to show off the voice (or whatever other instrument; the comment is valid for any type of performer, really).
The recital began with five Burns settings by Schumann, all from 1840, the year of his marriage, and the year when his compositional muse, quite literally, burst into song. Prior to this point, he had never written any songs, indeed, rather looked down on the medium. However, the resolution of his long-standing feud with Friedrich Wieck over the issue of his engagement to Wieck's daughter Clara, and their subsequent marriage, clearly provided a new and very prolific boost to his writing. All of the big song cycles - Liederkreis, Dichterliebe, Frauenliebe und -leben - date from this year, as well as the 4-book set of Myrthen, or "myrtle leaves". This is a very broad-ranging set of songs, from various poetic sources, and Spence gave us half of the eight Burns songs, with nicely contrasting moods and all appropriately High Romantic in mode. (I may have an issue or two with the translations from Burns's Scots into German, but that's not the problem of anyone around today.) In addition to these four, there was a refreshingly spry setting of "My love is like a red, red rose", a far cry from the sentimental wallowing frequently engendered by that poem.
Who Are These Children is Benjamin Britten's last song-cycle for voice and piano, written in 1969, settings of the 20th Century Scots poet William Soutar. It's rarely performed, and I gather the issue is one of accent because, like Burns, Soutar wrote partly in standard English, and partly in Lowland Scots - of the twelve songs here, only four are in English. Soutar was in the Royal Navy during the First World War, and he emerged from that conflict with debilitating chronic arthritis which left him bed-ridden for the last decade or so of his life, and a hatred of war which comes through quite clearly in his work, and which would have resonated very clearly with the pacifist Britten. Also familiar to Britten's interests are themes of children, and of the destruction of youth, literal or metaphorical, through conflict, and it was easy to see the attraction of these texts for Britten. I admit I have some difficulty imagining Peter Pears, with his extremely precise Received Pronunciation, negotiating his way around the Scots, but that was hardly a problem for Dumfries-born Spence. The moods vary quite widely, from light to dark, and the settings are fairly sparse, with little, obsessive phrases repeating in the piano part in many of the accompaniments. Most striking was, perhaps, "Nightmare", an eerily desolate song.
The second part of the programme began with a bright, happy performance of Schubert's "An Sylvia", further lifted by Martineau's springing accompaniment, then Roger Quilter's first set of Shakespeare Songs, including the soulfully melancholy "Come away, Death", and a vibrant "Blow, blow, thou winter wind". This was the one place where I felt there was a slight problem with Spence's voice. I did think that the Quilter songs should maybe have been taken just a little higher. "Blow, blow" begins with a sort of stately peal of bells from the piano, and when Spence got to the end of the first verse - "man's ingratitude" - his voice disappeared beneath the piano. It's not like Spence doesn't have some room to spare at the top, as he demonstrated a little later on.
Next came an interesting pair, settings of the same text, "Tell me where is fancy bred" from The Merchant of Venice, by Britten and by Poulenc, set back-to-back. Britten's, from 1961. was actually written for chorus, but as it's mostly in unison, it's not hard to render it for a single voice. It's a slightly breathless, nervy setting, one might say skittish, and a complete contrast to Poulenc's calmer, more reflective version, written a couple of years prior. Tippett's Songs for Ariel also date from around this same period, and were part of the incidental music he wrote for a production of The Tempest. If the last song, "Where the bee sucks", lies heavy in the shadow of the very famous Thomas Arne setting, and seems to wrench itself free only rather awkwardly, the other two are more striking, particularly the solemnly beautiful "Full fathom five".
We ventured into songs touched with a more popular vein to round off the recital; Mervyn Horder's tango setting of "Under the Greenwood Tree", John Dankworth's "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?" - neither of which completely convinced me - and then what began like a standard performance of Schubert's version of "Hark, hark, the lark", but delightfully veered off into a rag-inspired variation from Peter Dickinson's Schubert in Blue, which worked much better for both Spence and Martineau, and led to a highly entertaining encore of Dankworth's "Dunsinane Blues". After that distinctly irreverent wrap to the Shakespeare thread, Spence and Martineau put the bow on the package with Quilter's arrangement of "Ye Banks and Braes".
Spence's voice is not one of those gorgeous natural instruments that makes you sit up and take notice from the first note, but it's a pleasing timbre, solid and rounded, well-managed and expressive, and his diction is excellent, exactly as you want it for a recitalist. Well, in truth, you want it for all aspects of singing, but clear diction is nowhere near as common or all-encompassing a concept as it should be, so I, for one, am grateful when I come across it. As for Malcolm Martineau, his credentials as one of the world's most admired accompanists hardly need further presentation. His complicity with Spence was apparent right from the start, he entered as easily into the humour of the programme as its more serious facets, his support always judiciously balanced, to deliver along with Nicky Spence an excellent exemplar of the ideal song recital.
[Next : 17th January]