Temple Song series
Middle Temple Hall, London
9 July 2009
Dame Felicity Lott (soprano)
Julius Drake (piano)
Schumann: (Burns)
Jemand
Die Hochländer-Witwe
Hochländisches Wiegenlied
Weit, weit
Hauptmanns Weib
Schumann: (Chamisso)
Frauenliebe und -leben
Reynaldo Hahn:
Rêverie
A Chloris
Le printemps
Chanson d’Automne
‘Y a des arbres
La dernière valse
Shakespeare settings
Britten: Tell me, where is fancy bred?
Quilter: Come away, death
Haydn: She never told her love
Horder: Under the Greenwood tree
Poulenc: Fancy
Bush: Sigh no more, ladies
review:
…. And whence to the other extreme of life in London – Temple Church in Middle Temple, the seat of our ‘learned friends’ of law.
Here on a balmy summer’s eve, Felicity Lott, the cherished mezzo-soprano, gave a recital of Lieder. The divine Dame, suitably attired in shimmering gold trousers with a glittering Kaftan, charmed her ardent admirers with Schubert. In her subtle, mellow rendering of Schubert’s Nun hast Du mir den ersten Schmerz getan (Now you have caused my first pain), the lovers lament over the death of the beloved, delicatedly supported by her elegant pianist Prof Julius Drake.
But little gasps of delight were heard for a rare find, the A Chloris by Theophile Gaultier, a most beautiful lovesong written in the 16th Century. To hear these exquisite, haunting melodies in the extraordinary surroundings of Middle Temple Hall, full of ancient heraldry, a vivid testimony to the achievements of this country’s past, is to wonder about it’s place in the present.
Surely it is only by an integration of the past and the present – geeks and gods – that we will find a satisfying solution. So geeks, off to the Temple! The radiant Dame, resembling a bird of paradise, looked as if she would happily share the joys of her craft and surf their Superhighway with a warm smile.
- The Southbank Gourmande