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Dussek,
Rösler,
Vorísek, Kricka, Eben, Duparc, Britten, Shostakovich
Dussek
Klage der Liebe Filling the Wigmore Hall to capacity in advance, mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kozená was able to assure critical interest in her recital by her own choice of a mixed programme, only two of Duparc's songs regularly heard. A pleasant evening, but after the density of musical and poetical thought in Wigmore Hall's recent Hugo Wolf saturation, it was one in which the earlier novelties by Rösler, Vorísek and Kricka (with post-Wagnerian hothouse chromaticism) all disappointed, lacking the spark of individuality one hoped for, if to encourage further exploration of those obscure composers from her own country. Kozená's German was better than last time she was in London, but Italian, Czech & Russian suited her better. At times she lost tone when striving for expressive pianissimo. The young Petr Eben's stylish medieval love songs made a mark; deliberately archaic but reinvented with sufficient individual touches to make a welcome set for singers confident of their multi-lingual skills. Shostakovich's angry Satires gave scope for unbuttoned virtuosity by Malcolm Martineau, whose playing throughout was superb in support, making for a partnership of sympathetic equals. Best by far was Britten's A Charm of Lullabies, each one with the unerring touch of a great song composer whose models were Schubert and Wolf, but always setting his own inimical stamp on carefully chosen poems, Highland Balou and The Nurse's Song most affecting. Peter Grahame Woolf
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