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Simon Keenlyside in recital with Malcolm Martineau
Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, 28 August 2006
A personal review by Gwyneth Davies
Edinburgh’s Queen’s Hall, a converted Georgian church, provided the perfect intimate setting for this morning recital. As the bright Scottish sunshine streamed through the high windows, Simon Keenlyside and Malcolm Martineau joined their audience for a programme of English song and German lieder. Dressed in a grey suit, pale grey shirt and darker grey tie, and proudly wearing a shiny new wedding ring, Simon Keenlyside looked relaxed and at ease despite the early hour.
The recital opened with the English folk song The Sprig of Thyme, arranged by Percy Grainger, and moved on through pieces by Bridge (Love Went a-Riding), Somerville (Birds in the high Hall Garden, based on a poem by Tennyson) and Warlock (Piggesnie, a light-hearted song based on a 16th century poem) to the haunting Howells song The Little Boy Lost, a setting of a poem by William Blake from Songs of Innocence. Simon Keenlyside later explained in an interview that he feels this song prefigures The Chimney Sweeper, Blake’s other “little boy lost”, which forms part of the following song cycle. Despite the infuriating disturbance from an unthinking audience member’s mobile phone during the opening bars, SK appeared unfazed and did not falter in his singing. He performed the song beautifully, touchingly portraying the child’s anguish in a most moving way.
Simon Keenlyside has said on several occasions that he feels that Holst’s Betelgeuse is directly linked musically to the Britten song cycle. I find the bleak remoteness of this song rather distancing, but hearing it performed live did change my opinion. Although the singing is more like an incantation, with little variation of tone, at one moment in this performance SK’s exquisitely lovely near-whisper of the word “time” spoke volumes in conveying an impression of the remoteness and distance of the eponymous star.
With barely a second’s pause, SK and MM then moved straight into Britten’s song cycle Songs and Proverbs of William Blake – and a dazzling performance they gave. To a non-singer like myself, these songs seem fiendishly difficult to sing, but SK gave no indication of this. Instead he used all his considerable artistry to convey the varying moods – from the touching little chimney sweep to the violent anger of The Poison Tree – and it was evident that he was totally immersed in the music, conveying the dramatic moments of the text with an on-stage intensity usually only seen in his operatic performances. The Edinburgh audience was totally swept up in the power of this overwhelming interpretation and greeted the end of the cycle with rapturous applause.
After the interval SK and MM moved from Blake’s terrifying visions into the gentler sounding but no less powerful musical realm of German lieder. After the first Schubert song An die Leier, SK started to sing Fischerlied but stopped abruptly when he realised MM was actually playing something else! They both laughed and SK shrugged off his mistake with a smile and reverted to the official programme order, first singing Stimme der Liebe, then Fischerlied and finally Fischerweise. The Schubert section of the recital ended with one of my favourites, Im Walde, another performance stunning in its intensity. I don’t think I have ever heard SK sing this song better!
SK and MM then left the platform briefly to more thunderous applause and returned for the final section of four Brahms songs. All the songs, including the lovely Nachtwandler, were beautifully performed and the recital ended on a lighter note with the song Ständchen (Serenade).
The audience showed their appreciation with prolonged applause and foot stamping, which subsided into total silence when SK returned to the platform followed by MM carrying some music. SK announced that he would sing Wolf’s An die Geliebte and said “this one’s for me, because I love it”. We were then treated to an exquisite performance of this beautiful song, sung by SK with great tenderness and obvious emotion.
More wildly enthusiastic applause from an audience reluctant to let them leave persuaded SK and MM to give one further encore – Schubert’s L’incanto degli Occhi – wonderfully sung and the perfect conclusion to a truly glorious recital.
Gwyneth Davies
01.09.06