Last Wednesday’s lunchtime recital was given by soprano Lauren Fagan; currently appearing as Tatyana in the COC’s Eugene Onegin, and pianist Rachael Kerr.  Things kicked off with a selection of three songs from Berg’s Sieben Frühe Lieder.  What struck me here, apart from some really nice expressive singing, was Lauren’s ability too spin a line out coherently.

There had to be Russian, I guess, it was the notoriously difficult Rachmaninoff songs from Opus 48.  There are six of them, of quite varied moods incluing the exuberant “The Ratcatcher”.There was fine singing here too but, as tends to be the case with Rachmaninoff songs, one’s ears were drawn to the complex piano part; going on crazy in place, that was very well played.  And to cap that off Rachael followed it up with one of the preludes.

Next, giving a nod to an upcoming Stockholm production of Rusalka, we got “The Song to the Moon”.  This was quite beautiful; very smooth with some considerable subtlety but plenty of oomph where needed.  If you happen to be in Stockholm in the Fall….

And finally, two songs about birdsong by Australian/New Zealander composer Alfred Hill.  The first riffed off the call of the mopoke; a kind of New Zealand owl.  The second; “I Thought I Heard a Magpie Call” was a sentimental evocation of Australian bird song as imagined by someone in New Zealand and it takes a fair bit of imagination to think one can hear bird song across the Tasman!

Photo credit: Dan Truong