Thursday Noon at Met recital was given by baritone James Coole-Stevenson accompanied by Vlad Soloviev. The first part of the recital was all Canadian art song. Jocelyn Mortlock’s Involuntary Love Songs; which are varied in mood and quite lyrical, Ian Cusson’s “You Held Out the Light” from Breakfast for Barbarians which is short and very Ian Cusson., with a shimmering piano part and finally James Rolfe’s Moths. This is a very complex cycle about light and dreaming and very varied from the boomy “night is a river” to the delicate “The river of dreams” and much more. It was all sung with great attention to text backed up by impeccable diction and sharp characterisation. As is usually the case with contemporary song the pianist has a lot to do and Vlad did it really well. It’s good to see someone programme so much contemporary Canadian song.

Then we got two opera arias. The first was “Si corre del notalo” in which Gianni Schicchi outlines his cunning plan to the Donatis. Anyone who heard James sing the whole role with the Glenn Gould school a few weeks ago will know he’s got this one covered! Then we got Valentin’s aria “Avant de quitter ces lieux” from Faust which is a classic of the lyric baritone rep. It was delivered with a nice mix of power and delicacy and the high notes were all there.

There’s a story to the last piece on the programme; The Bloody Gardener arranged by Ralph Vaughan Williams. This rather spooky piece was collected by RVW in Newman’s Cove, Newfoundland in the early 1900s as sung by James’ great-great-great grandfather. James sang it rather well. I wonder how good his GGGGF was!

So, an excellent lunchtime recital and ss always with the Noon at Met series the whole concert is available on Youtube.