Cheltenham Music  Festival 2007  (2) : Mélodies and Songs by Charles Gounod, Gabriel Fauré, Camille Saint-Saëns, Emmanuel Chabrier, Samuel Barber, John Musto, Ned Rorem and Cole Porter. Dame Felicity Lott (soprano) & Malcolm Martineau (piano). Pittville Pump Room, Cheltenham. 8.7. 2007 (JQ)

 

Dame Felicity Lott breezed into town – her home town – on Sunday morning and banished all thoughts of the depressing English summer weather with a wonderful recital of French and American songs.

This was a recital which illustrated keenly the importance of the visual aspect of musical performance. I have recordings of most of the pieces that Dame Felicity sang, some of them recordings that she herself has made, but her communicative skills – and those of pianist Malcolm Martineau – added that extra dimension which, in the best live performances, brings the music to life. Throughout the programme Dame Felicity used facial expressions and body language to illustrate the music. Nothing was done to excess, indeed everything was in perfect taste, but it all served to achieve a splendid rapport with the audience from the outset.

The first half of the programme was devoted to nineteenth-century mélodies. The French repertoire is one in which Dame Felicity particularly excels, not least because her command of the language is so effortless – as one might expect from someone who read French at college. She opened with three songs by Gounod and the very first item Où voulez-vous aller?, delivered as a delicious invitation, set the standard for the rest of the recital. It was followed by Le soir, a slow, reflective song in which Dame Felicity particularly delighted us with some ravishing high notes. Just as important to the success of this number was the splendid pianism of Malcolm Martineau.

Martineau also impressed greatly in En sourdine, the second in the Fauré group, where his rippling piano part underpinned a gorgeous, sustained vocal line. The quiet ending was exquisitely done. I noted – but was not distracted by – Martineau's facial expressions and body language in Clair de Lune, the last of the Fauré selection. These served to show how involved he was in the interpretation and communication of this song – and everything else on the programme. No “mere” accompanist he! The Fauré group was well chosen: all the songs contrasted nicely with each other and all were expertly performed.

I must confess that I’m not really familiar with the songs of Saint-Saëns but, having heard the three that were included in this recital, I think that’s an omission I need to rectify. In La coccinelle (The Ladybird), Dame Felicity told the story in an engagingly confiding fashion. Her performance was an object lesson in the art of subtle timing – both physical and musical. By contrast Si vous n’avez rien à me dire, has a tone of wistful longing, which was very successfully imparted. To close the group we heard Danse macabre, from which Saint-Saëns later developed the more celebrated orchestral piece of the same name. At times this song is a real tongue twister but it was put over superbly by singer and pianist.

Finally in this half we heard three songs by Chabrier, the texts and translations of which were unaccountably omitted from the programme booklet. I’d take issue slightly with the programme annotator’s assertion that Chabrier “composed only a handful of songs”. Actually no less than forty-three are included on the very fine Hyperion CD set of his mélodies. Dame Felicity was the principal contributor to that collection, including two of the items that she offered in this recital. One of these was Tes yeux bleus. This very fine song is sensuous and rapt and it suited Dame Felicity to a tee. With sensitive support from Malcolm Martineau she gave a wonderfully expressive reading. Just as successful was their performance of L’île heureuse, an appealing and outgoing expression of happiness, which brought the first half of the programme to an end.

For the second half we crossed the Atlantic. In keeping with the theme of the Festival we were offered songs by American composers, all from the twentieth-century. A group of four songs by Samuel Barber began with a beautifully relaxed account of The Monk and his Cat, one of the Hermit Songs Op. 29. This was followed by Sure on this shining night. This is, 'surely', one of the greatest of all twentieth-century art songs, showing Barber’s lyric gifts at their peak. The performance by Dame Felicity was all that could be desired. Her lustrous tone and ability to sustain long lines was ideally suited to this magnificent song. Solitary Hotel, the last in her Barber selection, is a very different kettle of fish. It’s a fairly late composition, part of the cycle Despite and Still Op. 41, and written some thirty years after Sure on this shining night. It’s a setting of a typically fragmentary narrative text by James Joyce, an extract from Ulysses. Aptly described in the programme notes as a “dry recitative against a piano tango”, this represents a real challenge to the singer, who has relatively limited melodic material with which to engage the listener’s attention. Dame Felicity harnessed her vast operatic expertise and deployed small physical gestures and facial expressions unerringly to draw her audience in and give us an involving account of the song.

Then on to a pair of songs by a much less familiar composer, John Musto (b. 1954). The first, Triolet (1987), was very short indeed, lasting only about a minute. In this song a languorous vocal line is supported by a gently rocking piano part. Litany from Shadow of the Blues (1986) made a far stronger impression. This is a setting of a poem by the African-American poet, Langston Hughes (1902-1967). It’s a heartfelt, contemporary prayer in which an eloquent vocal line is accompanied by a questioning piano part. The song was given a superb performance.

Ned Rorem (b. 1928) is one of America’s most celebrated song composers. The four songs of his that were included here were shrewdly chosen. In the first place they suited Dame Felicity admirably. Secondly they were all composed in the 1950s when Rorem was living in France and so they provided a nice connection with the first half of the programme. Early in the morning makes the French connection explicit for the poem by Robert Hillyer describes a young person (“I was twenty and a lover”) breakfasting at a pavement café. It’s a direct and charming song. The Gertrude Stein setting that followed, I am Rose, had the audience chuckling. Youth, Day, Old Age, and Night, the second of a pair of Whitman settings is a more serious and challenging piece, which drew typically committed singing from Dame Felicity.

There had often been a twinkle in Dame Felicity’s eye during the recital. In two of the Cole Porter songs with which she finished she was able to give full rein to her undoubted gift for comedy. These are both numbers that, as the programme note pointed out, “fell foul of the taste-and-decency brigade”. I’m afraid I’m an unrepentant fan! The Physician is packed with tongue twisting medical terms and delicious double entendres, all of which Dame Felicity relished to the full. Just as enjoyable was The Tale of the Oyster, which might be described as the rise and fall of a socially-climbing oyster. Again, the wit and humour was brought out perfectly. Never mind the “taste-and-decency” brigade, this Cheltenham audience loved it all! Night and Day is a marvellous love song and the sultry, elegantly sexy performance by Dame Felicity was a wonderful conclusion to the recital.

Of course, it wasn’t quite the end. There was no way she and Malcolm Martineau would be allowed to get away without an encore. I thought it might have been Gershwin but, just as welcome, it was Jerome Kern and perhaps the best song of all from that groundbreaking show, Showboat. We were treated to a disarming, melting performance of Bill. Both artists put the song across in the simple, direct way that brings out the best in this song – truly a case of art concealing art.

This was a flawless, involving and marvellously entertaining recital by a superb singer at the very top of her form and working in a true partnership with a pianist who was demonstrably “with” his singer at all times. I loved every minute of the programme. Happily, BBC Radio 3 has recorded it and it will be broadcast on Tuesday 24 July at 13.00. Don’t miss it!

 

John Quinn