Benjamin Britten ‘In Memoriam’

3 December 2006
Wigmore Hall, London

Lisa Milne (soprano)
Catherine Wyn-Rogers (mezzo-soprano)
Mark Padmore (tenor)
Simon Keenlyside (baritone)
Graham Johnson (piano)

(Philip Langridge had to cancel through illness)

Part of the Benjamin Britten Festival, Wigmore Hall, 2 – 4 December 2006 marking the 30th anniversary of Britten’s death.

Broadcast on 6 December 2006 on BBC Radio 3 at 7.30pm. http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/schedule/2006/12/06/day/

On this Island (WH Auden): Lisa Milne, Graham Johnson

• Let the florid music praise
• Now the leaves are falling fast
• Seascape
• Nocturne
• As it is, plenty

A Charm of Lullabies (Op 41): Catherine Wyn-Rogers, Graham Johnson

• A cradle song (William Blake)
• The Highland balou (Robert Burns)
• Sephestia’s lullaby (Robert Greene)
• A charm from The jealous lovers (Thomas Randolph)
• The nurse’s song from The play of patient Grissell (John Philip)

Excerpts from The Holy Sonnets of John Donne: Mark Padmore, Graham Johnson

• Oh my blacke Soule
• might those sighes and teares
• Oh, to vex me
• Since she whom I lov’d
• All the round earth’s imagin’d corners
• Death be not proud

Interval

Songs & Proverbs of William Blake (Op 74): Simon Keenlyside, Graham Johnson

• Proverb I
• London
• Proverb II
• The Chimney-sweeper
• Proverb III
• A Poison Tree
• Proverb IV
• The Tyger
• Proverb V
• The Fly
• Proverb VI
• Ah! Sunflower
• Proverb VII
• Every Night and Every Morn

Who are these Children? (Op 84) (William Soutar): Mark Padmore, Graham Johnson

• A Riddle (The Earth)
• A Laddie’s Sang
• Nightmare
• Black Day
• Bed-time
• Slaughter
• A Riddle (The child you were)
• The Larky Lad
• Who Are These Children?
• Supper
• The Children
• The Auld Aik

What the critics say

Erica Jeal, for The Guardian, Tuesday December 5, 2006 (Extract)

Four Stars

”In the evening, the focus turned to the song cycles, courtesy of a classy line-up starting with Lisa Milne, whose soprano, though fruity, was not ideally focused in On This Island. The chronological presentation made for heavy going in the second half: the Songs and Proverbs of William Blake, delivered with wrenching expression by baritone Simon Keenlyside, and the postwar Requiem cycle Who Are These Children?, sung in Mark Padmore’s incomparably clear tenor, show Britten at his most sombre and complex. Yet there are moments of lightness, and the skipping urgency of The Tyger found pianist Graham Johnson achieving a poise and presence he didn’t always reach elsewhere. It was sad not to hear the indisposed Philip Langridge in all nine Holy Sonnets of John Donne, but Padmore was on hand to give us six. And there was an unscheduled appearance by Catherine Wyn-Rogers, whose velvety mezzo was as much of a bonus as the unexpected chance to hear Britten’s sonorous Charms and Lullabies.”

Timothy Ball for Classicalsource.com, 6 December 2006 [extract]

‘The “Songs and Proverbs of William Blake” was composed in 1965 for Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, who had, three years earlier, participated in the first performance of Britten’s “War Requiem”, and whose utterly unique vocal timbre was undoubtedly an inspiration. Simon Keenlyside is not Fischer-Dieskau, neither did he pretend to be, but gave a performance which had a conviction all its own. Indeed, with his sharp-etched delivery of the text, it could be argued that he was more successful than the cycle’s dedicatee at conveying the sinister, if not bitter, undertones in this music. These Blake settings are not ‘staples’ of the repertoire, but Keenlyside’s fervent advocacy reminded one that they are severely underrated. I hope he will record them under his new exclusive contract with Sony/BMG.’

‘This recital, like that of the Canticles earlier in the day, was more than a worthy commemoration of the work of one who must surely be seen more and more as the greatest British-born composer since Henry Purcell.’

Anna Picard for The Independent (extract), 10 December 2006

Britten and his many loves

“…Lisa Milne’s vivid account of the Auden cycle On this Island was undermined by Graham Johnson’s butter-fingered accompaniment, as were Wyn-Rogers’s performance of A Charm of Lullabies and Padmore’s performance of Who are these children, and the accompaniment to The Holy Sonnets of John Donne was abysmally muddied and vague. Only Simon Keenlyside’s reading of the Songs and Proverbs of William Blake was charismatic enough to inspire Johnson to more concentrated playing.”