Metropolitan United Church that is.  Not the other place.  Anyway, it was a very pleasant Thursday lunchtime recital in which Maeve was accompanied on piano by Helen Becqué.  It was essentially a “turn of the century” (as in around 1900) programme.

The first set was Debussy’s Ariettes Oubliees.  The six songs are very Debussy.  Maeve sang them idiomatically, in excellent French and with a fair amount of variation in emotional intensity from quite restrained to exuberant.  She does “exuberant” rather well.  Equally excellent and idiomatic playing from Helen who also provided a bit of a break between song sets with pieces drawn from the Preludes Op. 12 of Luise Adolpha Le Beau.

There was Strauss.  Rather at the light and playful end of Strauss, which made sense.  “Du meines Herzens Krönelein” and “Ständchen” were sung with some beauty and attention to text.  Then came Schönberg’s Vier Lieder Op. 2.  This is a really interesting set of songs.  There’s some dissonance but it’s nothing like the sound world of, say, String Quartet no. 2 but equally the influences one might expect to hear; Brahms? Mahler? Wagner? aren’t at all obvious.  It’s already a distinct musical personality.  It’s also quite emotional music which worked nicely because as the recital progressed Maeve got more dramatic.

In fact max-drama was kept for the end with three songs by Régine Poldowski.  “Columbine” and “En sourdine” were showy enough but it was “Dansons la Gigue” that allowed Maeve and Helen to finish off with, literally, a final flourish.

Lunchtime.  Short and sweet.  Very enjoyable.  And let’s hope new music minister Jonathan Oldengarm programmes more like this.

You can watch the recital on Youtube from which recording the pictures here have been taken.