BARTOK, Musgrave, and Kurtag. An interesting combination, but one
which revealed the pleasantly contrasting styles of the composers
through some of the finest singing I've heard in a long time.
Soprano Jane Manning was joined by the young pianist Rachel Beckles
Wilson for the Scottish premiere of The Sayings of Peter Bornemisza by
Kurtag. It's an outrageously contemporary piece, constructed in a series
of outbursts from the voice, the piano, or both. Somehow the music
seemed to cast a spell over the capacity audience, not broken until the
last utterence from the piano.
The enthusiastic reception was wholly deserved for Manning's faultless
translation. Each word was vividly illustrated somewhere amidst her
immense vocal range. Beckles Wilson was faced with a fiendishly
difficult part which may easily have been written for four hands. She
proved it is possible with two.
Earlier Manning adopted a childlike persona for Musgrave's A Suite o'
Bairnfangs; a delightful collection of miniatures based on a text by
Maurice Lindsay. Mischievous for Willie Wabster and innocent for A
Bairn's Prayer At Night, Manning clearly enjoyed this performance.
The programme was punctuated by Bartok's Choruses For Female Voices
sung by the SVT. Under the directorship of Graham Hair these three girls
present a perfectly balanced ensemble. Maturity of tone is evident
throughout but mezzo-soprano Tracy Wilson, rich and creamy, has the
voice to die for.
Bartok's Choruses are concrete evidence of his fascination with
Hungarian folk song. The three voices gossip about life, love, and
friendship through songs rich in passion and tender in sentiment. High
spirits and pleasing sounds from super voices.
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