Song at the Temple

Middle Temple Hall,London

15 February 2006  19:30

Joan Rodgers (soprano)
Julius Drake (piano)

“Julius Drake, the mastermind behind this classy series, whose sensitiveness to his singer’s needs and exquisite touch in his own solo moments combine to make him worthy of the mantle of the peerless Gerald Moore.” The Guardian

Robert Schumann:
Frauenliebe und Leben

Sergei Rachmaninov:
Songs, Op 38

Modest Mussorgsky:
The Nursery

What the critics say

George Hall ,The Guardian, Thursday 12 January 2006

London’s 16th-century Middle Temple Hall is an awesome place to attend a recital; amid the panelled and stained-glass splendour in which lawyers have preened themselves for 500 years, you cannot forget that Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night was first performed in this very room in 1602. There is a sense of privilege about merely being allowed in.

When the performer is the delightful soprano Joan Rodgers, in the wake of baritones Olaf Bar, Christopher Maltman and Thomas Allen, a series entitled Schumann in the Temple is as upscale as any in more commercial venues. Tenor Ian Bostridge will close it on 28 March, with Kerner Lieder. In the meantime, Rodgers seemed to share the audience’s sense of occasion in a memorable rendition of Schumann’s great song-cycle Frauenliebe und-Leben.

The plaint of a woman who falls in love, gets married and has a child, only to endure the early death of her husband, to words by the French-turned-German poet-naturalist Albert Chamisso, the work perfectly suits Rodgers’s combination of vocal purity and vibrant platform presence. In whatever repertoire, Rodgers does more than merely sing a song beautifully; she performs it with expressive elegance, her eye ranging effortlessly from twinkle to tear. In these and 11 other songs by Schumann, received with delight by a hushed, attentive audience, Rodgers gave a master-class in hitting every note right in its heart, while phrasing each line perfectly.

Perhaps the only world-class soprano with a Russian degree, she seemed even more at home in Mussorgsky’s charming set The Nursery and Rachmaninov’s moody Songs, op 38. Much credit must also go to her accompanist, Julius Drake, the mastermind behind this classy series, whose sensitiveness to his singer’s needs and exquisite touch in his own solo moments combine to make him worthy of the mantle of the peerless Gerald Moore.