EIF: Catriona Morison and Malcolm Martineau
Queen’s Hall - 21/08/23
This much-awaited event brought a full house to the Queen’s Hall, a recital by two Edinburgh musicians, an extreme rarity for this or any other Edinburgh International Festival. They did not disappoint.
On the very day of the great Dame Janet Baker’s 90th birthday, it seemed somehow appropriate to listen to, potentially, one of her finest successors. It is an extraordinary coincidence that, at the present time, three of the top mezzo-sopranos in the world are Scottish. Following Karen Cargill’s lead, Beth Taylor and Catriona Morison are in the vanguard of this voice type. Our EMR readers will know that I have sung with Beth recently, and interviewed her on this website, realising her potential, and I was delighted to hear Catriona today. Having won the Cardiff Singer of the World competition in 2017, she has been gradually adding roles to her repertoire, and her performance at the Queen’s Hall was one of a refined and mature artist, although still only in her thirties. Like Beth, the state of music in the UK is such that Catriona decided at an early stage to develop her career in Germany, starting off at Wuppertal, and living in Berlin, with an agent in Munich. Beth’s agent is in Vienna, and neither of them has worked much in Britain yet.
However, Catriona was here today, singing with the well-known Edinburgh-born pianist, Malcolm Martineau, and this was another excellent choice by Nicola Benedetti, whose programme this year has revealed hidden gems at every turn. It was a bold and fascinating recital programme, ranging from Schubert to Xavier Montsalvatge. When I saw that they were starting at 11am with ‘Die Junge Nonne’, a seriously dramatic Schubert Lied, I knew we were in for a cracker!
There was an announcement before the start, explaining that the hydraulics on the stage had broken down, and that the performers would have to play at ground level, rather than raised as usual. This was a shame, especially for those of us in the Stalls, as the sight lines were severely reduced. I could just see the upper part of Catriona’s body, and nothing of Malcolm, but fortunately these two fine musicians made us forget that problem with the quality of their performance.
The six Schubert songs were all brilliantly sung, and I especially enjoyed ‘Nacht und Träume’, words by Matthäus von Collin. I know from experience how difficult this beautiful song is to sing, and Catriona’s breath control and superbly spun vocal line were exquisite. Slow, quiet songs show how good a singer is, and this is one of Schubert’s finest. She finished the set with ‘Gretchen am Spinnrade’, the wonderful setting by Schubert of Goethe’s epic lament by the spinning wheel, from ‘Faust’, and Catriona’s singing, with Malcolm’s superb rendition of the fiendish piano part, were spell-binding.
I was less taken by the next group of songs by Josephine Lang. These two artists have championed the little known Lang, and performed them well, but I found the invention somewhat threadbare, especially after the genius of Schubert. However, the final three songs in the first half, by the great 19th century Diva, Pauline Viardot, friend of Liszt, Chopin, Gounod, Berlioz, Bizet and Wagner, to name but a few, and also apparently a fine composer, were terrific. A great singer herself, she knew how to write for the voice, and Catriona was fully up for the task, singing with great tone and brio, with fabulous coloratura and stunning top notes.
After the interval, during which the general consensus was hugely positive, Catriona and Malcolm sang four songs from Gustav Mahler’s ‘Des Knaben Wunderhorn’, the composer’s wonderful setting of over twenty German folk tales, which had been collected and published in the early 19th century. Mahler became obsessed with these poems (light, tender, shocking, tragic, funny, visionary), and his early symphonies are infused with the melodies he wrote for them. One of the greatest, which he used as a movement in his 2nd Symphony, is Urlicht (Primordial Light), a deeply moving, hymn-like poem, and Catriona Morison sang it beautifully. I first heard it sung by Janet Baker (with Leonard Bernstein) 50 years ago, and most recently by Beth Taylor in this year’s Cardiff competition, and it was especially poignant on Dame Janet’s 90th birthday.
I judge singers mostly on their ability to perform slow music well, as this needs artistry above and beyond mere technical mastery. These three ladies possess that skill in abundance, and that makes them stand out for me. Any decent singer can impress by high notes or tricky coloratura, but the great ones have the ability to express stillness. ‘Nacht und Träume’ and ‘Urlicht’ were the songs today that showed me just how good Catriona Morison is. The other Mahler songs were performed superbly, and Malcolm Martineau excelled himself in the fast flowing accompaniments that Mahler gave him. Living in Germany it was clear that Catriona’s German diction was exemplary, but I was also impressed by her French in a set of epitaphs by Pierre Vellones, short and witty texts cleverly set by the composer.
Catriona and Malcolm ended their recital with ‘Five Negro Songs’ by the Spanish composer Xavier Montsalvatge, someone of whom I reckon few in the audience had any knowledge. These songs, written in the aftermath of the Second World War and the Spanish Civil War, dealing with complicated issues of colonialisation and racism, were expertly performed, leaving us with much to ponder.
The overwhelming impression left by this concert was of a singer on the cusp of greatness, as yet little known by the public at large, but already fully fledged as a performer, with bags of charisma and a glorious voice. I hope we will hear more from Catriona Morison in Scotland soon.
Cover photo: Andrew Low
