To Walter Hall on Saturday evening to hear a recital by tenor Marcel d’Entremont.  I was intrigued by the programme; English song; art and otherwise, with the resources of a piano quintet for accompaniment.  It’s quite rare for an art song recital to have more than just piano accompaniment so this looked promising.  I wasn’t disappointed.

Proceedings began with three of Beethoven’s Irish Songs scored for voice and string trio (Here Aaron Schwebel – violin, Rory McLeod – viola and  Guillaume Artus – cello).  I wasn’t familiar with these songs and they are really rather jolly and were nicely done.  Two Irish ballads of the sort that people mistake (sometimes) for “traditional” (but no Tom Lehrer) followed.  Marcel has the style down pat (or Pat) for these.  Think all those best selling recordings of Irish tenors from the 78 era.

And so to more serious fare; Ivor Gurney’s Ludlow and Teme with Dakota Scott-Digout at the piano.  These must be the least performed of the major Houseman settings (after Butterworth and RVW).  I think I can see why.  The piano part is often more interesting than the vocal line and they don’t have either the sheer beauty of the Butterworth or the harmonic complexity of the RVW versions.  Still, they are interesting and got a really good performance.  Looking at individual songs I was struck by how relatively understated both “Ludlow Fair” and “On the Idle Hill of Summer” are but “When I Was One and Twenty” is really quite unusual.  The first half was finished off with a rather pleasing rendering of Paul Simon’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water”.

The main feature of the second half of the concert was Vaughan William’s Houseman settings; On Wenlock Edge.  This is scored for piano quintet so the previous four instrumentalists were reinforced by Csaba Koczó on violin.  Oddly, the last time I heard this piece was also in Walter Hall (Asitha Tennekoon at the WMCT).  These  are pyschologically and musically at the absolute pinnacle of English song.  The complex chromatic settings perfectly match Houseman’s death obsessed text.  Marcel’s interpretation was pretty impassioned, adding more emotion in the voice where many singers would have (metaphorically) stood further back and let the words creep up on the listener more.  I liked Marcel’s approach but I’m not sure I prefer it, but then I’m unusually invested in Houseman’s poems.

To finish things off we got Ewan McColl’s lovely ballad “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face”.  A fitting ending to a cleverly composed recital displaying a rather beautiful voice and considerable versatility.

As an endnote I want to mention that doctoral recitals (and this was one) are a really good source of free high quality music.  We are blessed that way in Toronto with the COC’s free lunchtime series, Noon at Met and UofT Music’s Thursdays at Noon, to name a few opportunities.  The DMA recitals are all listed on the faculty’s events page.