Live Music Now Scotland: Emerging Artists Series: Lark Duo
Usher Hall - 22/01/24
Ines Mayhew-Begg, soprano | Lisa Robertson, violin
Ines Mayhew-Begg, soprano, and Lisa Robertson, on violin, are Lark Duo, who keep today’s Usher Hall audience entertained, with a programme of folk songs, twentieth century classical works, and an unexpected ear-worm finale.
They enjoy playing the work of under-represented composers. Vaughan Williams may be well-known for certain works, but his song cycle ‘Along the Field’ is much less familiar. They play four of the eight settings of poems by A E Houseman, first performed in 1927 by a soprano and female violinist. ‘We’ll to the Woods No More’ with violin and voice taking different melodic lines, and ‘Along the Field,’ with its drone accompaniment are poignant and even bitter in their reaction to the deaths of the First World War, while the perky violin solo in ‘Fancy’s Knell’ is a happier memory of a pre-war dance, with the brief ‘With Rue My Heart is Laden’ providing an elegiac conclusion.
Lisa is a composer, and her settings for ‘Three Burns Songs’ provide imaginative duets for instrument and voice. Ines sings and speaks Scots well, preceding the songs with a spoken performance of the wintry ‘Up in the Morning’s No for Me’ ‘Ay Waukin o’ is a lovely setting, the melodic line of the violin contrasting with the tune in the first and last verses, and adding a pizzicato strum to the middle verses. Here, as throughout the programme, Ines sings with clarity and emotion.
‘Changing Light’ by composer, Kaija Saariaho, who died last year, is the most challenging work in the programme. She was inspired by the natural world of her Finnish childhood and influenced in her early work by electronic music. The players suggest that we imagine the night sky in her exploration of the upper sounds of the violin and soprano voice. There are austere moments, but both musicians provide the technical excellence required, with wonderful soaring legato from Ines and intricate ornamentation in Lisa’s playing. Afterwards Ines says how exciting it was to hear the intricacies of the piece in the Usher Hall’s wonderful acoustic.
Rebecca Clarke’s setting of ‘Down by the Sally Gardens’, a delightful alternative to the folk-tune Yeats had in mind for his poem, is followed by ‘Three Irish Country Songs’ in Lisa’s settings. In ‘I know Where I’m Going’ there are nice twists to Irish dance rhythms underneath Ines’s melody, and ‘As I was Going to Ballynure’ features some sparky jigs.
The final number, ‘Doll on Music Box’ isn’t an immediately recognisable title but was revealed as the Sharman Brothers’ duet for Sally Ann Howes and Dick van Dyke from ‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’, taking me back to my time as an Odeon usherette in the late 60s. I’ve been humming along ever since!
Lark Duo are talented musicians with a fascinating repertoire. They are playing at the National Gallery of Scotland on March 14th from 6 till 6.30. Tickets are free but booking is essential. Highly recommended.
