3:44pm Wednesday 14th April 2010
By Simon Collings
Lucy Crowe is one of Britain’s most exciting young sopranos. Since graduating from the Royal College of Music in 2004 she has achieved a series of hits both in opera and on the concert circuit. Saturday’s recital was clearly designed to demonstrate Crowe’s versatility. The repertoire ranged from Mendelssohn, through the fin de siècle lushness of Alban Berg, to a simple unaccompanied Irish folk song. Yet at no time did this feel contrived. Crowe and her accompanist Anna Tilbrook seemed to be enjoying every minute.
Crowe has a genuine passion for the music she performs, which communicates itself strongly in performance. She is equally at home in operatic roles and in the world of folk. There is something of the unpretentiousness of Kathleen Ferrier about her. She has tremendous technical control, a natural engaging style, and her singing never seems laboured or mannered.
The programme included not just a range of music from different periods, but songs demanding different styles of approach. The concert began with a dramatic personification of the gloating witch of Mendelssohn’s Hexenlied – a high-octane opening. Crowe’s Schumann renditions were powerfully emotional, and the Berg Seven Early Songs wonderfully rich and seductive.
Alongside familiar works the programme included The Hare and the Moon, by Rhian Samuel, and three Shakespeare settings by Madeleine Dring. The first mixed narration with dramatic coloratura passages in a delightful account of a Japanese folk tale. The pieces by Dring were reminiscent of Warlock’s settings of these texts, but with more embellishment. It was interesting to see female composers being championed.
Crowe seemed slightly apologetic about introducing folk songs into the programme, but her unaffected singing perfectly matched the music. Her unaccompanied She moved thro' the fair held the audience spellbound. The encore of Britten’s arrangement of The Salley Gardens was a perfect ending.
Anna Tilbrook was excellent throughout as accompanist – a strong rapport clearly evident between these two accomplished artists.
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