EIF: Malcolm Martineau and Friends
Walter Scott’s 250th birthday is on 15th August, and various musical celebrations are afoot. Petroc Trelawney has featured excerpts from Scott-inspired operas this week on Radio 3’s Breakfast, and on Tuesday 17th August, mezzo Claire Barnett-Jones, winner of the Cardiff Singer of the World Audience Prize, celebrates Scott’s “Airs of Chivalry and Romance” in a Fringe concert at St Andrew’s and St George’s. Today Malcom Martineau does homage to the great man with singers, Elizabeth Watts and Roderick Williams and string players, Sijie Chen and Ursula Smith.
Our online programme contains extensive notes on the provenance of the music – full marks to David Kettle! For a highly entertaining exploration of Walter Scott’s influence on music, Brian Bannatyne -Scott’s Heart of Midlothian: A Singer Salutes Sir Walter Scott is recommended reading on the EMR blog.
Today’s concert begins and ends with Scott texts set by Haydn and Beethoven. In these songs, the singers are accompanied by strings as well as piano, and they provide an interesting texture in the more stirring ballads, like Williams’ rendition of the swashbuckling Ballade vom Blutigen Gewand by Haydn, and Beethoven’s rousing Monks of Bangor’s March, the duet which ends the concert. In Beethoven’s heartfelt Sunset, beautifully sung by Elizabeth Watts, a pizzicato introduction leads into a legato melody on the cello. Perhaps surprisingly, unlike the Haydn and Beethoven settings of Burns, none of these songs has a well-known tune. I later remembered two well-known Scots songs which have words wholly or partly attributed to Scott – Jock of Hazledean and Bonnie Dundee, both suited to a fiddle accompaniment!
The other main block of songs is by Schubert. He wrote seven songs based on The Lady of the Lake, and we hear five of them. (The other two are for choral ensembles, so the cycle is rarely performed as a whole). Elizabeth Watts sings Elena’s three songs, the first of which with its contrasting tempos is a seven-minute tour de force. After Roderick Williams hunting song with racing accompaniment, Elena’s third song is Ave Maria, the original German version, a prayer for her lost love.
Elizabeth Watts is a wonderful musician. I was impressed at Paxton with the increased power in her voice. Here she seems to get the measure of the tricky Old College acoustic early on, and her voice soars through the auditorium. All credit to her too in singing without a score. She’s a wonderfully expressive singer, committed to engaging with the audience. Roderick Williams keeps a folder to hand as an aide-memoire, but rarely consults it, making eye-contact in the best Lieder tradition. His songs are often heroic numbers, which he sings powerfully, although he also shines in a short witty French, Meyerbeer’s La pauvre Louise. One of the most charming arias is their duet ‘O hush thee my baby’ by Danish composer, Niels Gade, a touching lullaby, in which their voices blend beautifully.
Malcom Martineau has put together an interesting programme, illustrating the international range of Scott’s influence on song over the last two centuries. His own contribution at the piano is as masterful as ever, obviously enjoying the collaboration with the string players as well as with the singers. There are well-deserved cheers at the end and Roderick Williams’ ditty about Walter Scott - “not given to levity and not inclined to brevity” - is our encore.
This concert is free online as part of the At Home programme from 15th August – highly recommended!
