Thursday lunchtime in Walter Hall saw the 2024 edition of the annual recital by the winners of the Norcop Prize in Song and the Koldofsky Prize in Accompanying.  This year’s winners are mezzo-soprano Nicole Percifield and pianist Minira Najafzade.

Things started off well.  “Furie son dell’alma mia” from Handel’s Partenope got the full opera seria treatment with plenty of drama and Percifield showing plenty of power and well controlled coloratura.

Next came five German Lieder by Brahms, Mozart and Wolf.  It was nicely controlled, expressive but not excessive Lieder singing and playing with an excursion into somewhat more dramatic territory with Wolf’s “Liebe mir im Busen zündet’ einen Brand” which was pretty fierce and finishing up with a playful account of Brahms’ “Salamander”.  Two songs by Henri Duparc allowed Percifield to show she’s as comfortable in French as German and let Najafzade display some real virtuosity.

These recitals usually have a section where the protagonists produce something a bit more personal relating to their own culture/background/heritage.  Here it was two arrangements by Peter Tiefenbach.  The first was of Ian Tyson’s “Four Strong Winds”.  How that relates to Ms. Percifield I don’t know but it sounded good.  His arrangement of a traditional Azerbaijani song “Sari Gelin” (Blone Bride) was a more obvious choice.  Both were beautifully sung.

The final set was three songs from Elgar’s Sea Pictures op. 37.  This is “every British mezzo of note for as long as I can remember” territory.  Think Janet Baker, Felicity Lott, Sarah Connolly (there’s nothing like a Dame!).  So Percifierld took the songs on with expression and perfect, rather British, diction.  “Where Corals Lie” was especially fine.

All in all, another really rather good Norcop/Koldofsky recital.

Photos taken from the UoT Music Youtube livestream.