The Samling Foundation describes its main objective
as being ‘…to bring together established international artists with
highly talented young musicians and visual artists, and to provide them
with a sympathetic environment where they can work, perform, exhibit
and, above all, be inspired.’ A most laudable aim, and as Thomas Allen’s
lively, articulate introduction made clear, the Foundation is thriving,
and this concert gave ample evidence both of the generosity of spirit
behind the idea, and the kind of musical talent which it seeks to nurture.
As so often happens with events involving many personnel,
some of those billed to appear were indisposed, but their replacements
provided much musical pleasure; in any case, I’m a bit dubious about
the likes of Lisa Milne being regarded as a rookie, and the same goes
for Jonathan Lemalu, although he seems to crop up in just about every
guise known to concert-going London at the moment. The first half was
built up of little bits and pieces of arias and Lieder, and began, ambitiously,
with the American tenor Eric Rieger’s account of ‘Si, ritrovarla’ from
‘Cenerentola.’ Mr. Rieger is not Juan Diego Florez, and one hopes that
he has no desire to be, since his instrument, although agile and beautiful,
is not really in the florid mould, lacking the essential ‘ping’ for
this music, but this is a lovely tenor voice and a winning personality
who will go a long way on both the recital platform and the opera stage.
Lisa Milne’s replacements were the very young Bibi
Heal and the experienced Sally Matthews; the former sang ‘Die Forelle’
very sweetly but without much character, and the latter a very leisurely
‘Morgen,’ superbly accompanied by Malcolm Martineau. Rather more characterful
singing came from Leigh Woolf in two fine, spirited Mendelssohn performances,
and of course from Lemalu in Finzi’s ‘Channel Firing’ and ‘Before and
After Summer.’ One had only to hear the opening lines, ‘That night your
great guns, unawares, Shook all our coffins as we lay,…’ to be aware
that here is a voice in a thousand, sonorous, dramatic and used with
intelligence and musicality; this is the fourth time I’ve heard him
within a year, and I’m still impressed although a little concerned that
he may be taking on too much, and this concern was borne out by his
seeming lack of preparation for the Brahms ‘Liebeslieder’ which closed
the first half. None of the singers seemed at ease here, and Lemalu
appeared rather distant for much of the time, but things took a distinctly
more positive tone after the interval.
The second half was mainly operatic, commencing with
a lively performance of the Sextet from Act 2 of ‘Don Giovanni,’ with
Thomas Allen showing a refreshing lack of self-importance by singing
Masetto, and Lemalu revealing his natural aptitude for a part such as
Leporello. There was some really delightful singing from Allen and Patricia
MacMahon in Messager’s ‘Trot here and there,’ and Rieger and Matthews
in ‘La la la la la’ from ‘L’Elisir,’ but the hit of the whole evening
was Allen and Lemalu in ‘Cheti,Cheti’ (‘Don Pasquale’) with baritone
and bass-baritone competing to see who could pull off the most ripe
characterization; it was a near – run thing, it has to be said – as
Allen remarked, tongue only slightly in cheek, ‘Well, I’ll be able to
say I sang with Jonathan Lemalu!’ A most entertaining evening, with
a pleasing mixture of both well known and less familiar, both in terms
of repertoire and personnel.
Melanie Eskenazi
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