Is Hugo Wolf the Macca to Schubert's Lennon, in Leider terms?

This possibly heretical thought was prompted by the juxtaposition of a robust and exciting performance of the latter's Auf der Bruck preceding a trio of gentler Wolf songs in baritone William Berger's arresting song sequence, Insomnia – but perhaps also by hearing an afternoon recital by Pure Brass.

The Scots quintet, radically changed since I last heard them and more laddish now, played a trio of Beatles arrangements borrowed from Canadian Brass, which were a highlight of their performance, alongside (by contrast) a suite of early Scots courtly dance music arranged by John Maxwell Geddes.

Berger's set, recorded for Edinburgh label Delphian, was similarly varied, embracing Peter Warlock and Richard Rodney Bennett as well as Faure, Debussy, Ravel and the Germans. Although divided into time slots, as if the product of a single sleepless night, it would be a mistake to be too hung up on the thematic aspect. Berger admitted it had proved revealingly personal in performance, so any real narrative or emotional arc is perhaps also subconscious. Sleep, night, love and music are the common threads in this idiosyncratic diversity of texts and treatments, some familiar, others obscure, but all clearly to Berger's taste. He had not sold his pianist short either, and Iain Burnside relished the melodic phrasing of Faure's Clair de lune and the verve of Raymond Yiu's Sonnet, the sole commissioned piece.

The pair preceded Insomnia with Schumann's Liederkries, Opus 39, from which the Mondnacht was an ideal hors d'oeuvre to the main course.

Music at Paxton continues to Sunday.

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