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.