Songs from the Depths, Beth Taylor and Michał Gajzler
Stevenson Hall and Ledger Recital Room, Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Glasgow, Friday 11th October 2024
Beth Taylor, mezzo, and Michał Gajzler, piano
When I learned that my dear colleague Beth Taylor was returning to the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow to give a recital with Michał Gajzler, and a Masterclass for young students, it was clear to me that I had to be there for the great homecoming.
Consequently, I arrived, in Glasgow drizzle, at the grand entrance to the splendid Conservatoire to find the place buzzing with students, and an expectant audience excited about the return of one of their own to the place where she trained. Although still only in her early 30s, Beth Taylor has already made a name for herself as one of the finest young mezzo-sopranos in the world today. I am quick to criticise those singers who put such boasts in their biographies, but it is now clearly a matter of fact that Beth is one of the elite.
I first met her in 2019, when we were both engaged to sing in the solo quartet for a Mozart Requiem in Glasgow Cathedral, conducted by John Butt. It was immediately clear that here was a sumptuous voice, combined with a keen musical intelligence, rare in one so young. She was also the most delightful colleague, funny and charming in equal measure, with an enquiring mind and a total lack of brashness. Throughout the Lockdown, she continued to work on her voice but also worked as a volunteer at a hospital in Glasgow, displaying even then her sense of duty and responsibility. As we emerged from that dark period, her star rose rapidly, winning prizes and working tirelessly all over Europe to hone her craft. She acquired an excellent agent who has carefully helped her to establish herself as ‘one to watch’, and her appearance in the 2023 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition, in which she reached the grand final and was, in the estimation of many, unlucky not to win First Prize, brought her to the attention of a much wider audience. She has sung at Glyndebourne, Deutsche Oper, Berlin, Zürich, Frankfurt and Salzburg, with big debuts coming up in America and Canada.
It was, then, with an expectant hush that we all took our seats in the Stevenson Hall for this lunchtime recital, entitled Songs from the Depths, indicating a water-related theme running through the programme. The accompanist was Michał Gajzler, the young Polish pianist, familiar to EMR readers as my accompanist of choice over the last few years. In fact, Beth and Michał performed with me only two months ago in a Schumann recital in St Michael’s Church during the Edinburgh Festival and I hope you will trust me to review this concert as objectively as possible. The fact that they are both such fantastic performers makes my job rather easier than usual!
The room was packed and the ovation given at the beginning was a clear sign of the warmth felt for these fabulous young musicians. They began with a charming Irish love song, My Lagan Love, by Hamilton Harty, a favourite of Beth’s. Harty was an accomplished accompanist and a fine conductor, who was responsible for the recovery of the eminence of the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester after it had seen a decline in quality since the days of its founder. This was a lovely opening song, with a folk-song-like feel and a clear Irish lilt.
Next the duo turned to Debussy for three songs to poems by Verlaine - ‘La Mer est plus belle que les Cathédrales’, ‘Le Son du Cor s’afflige vers les Bois’ and ‘L’Ėchelonnement des Haies’. Only the first song, The Sea is more beautiful than the Cathedrals, had a watery theme, but the three were perfect examples of Debussy’s exquisite settings of Verlaine’s deeply romantic verse. One has to throw oneself into the world of French poetry, almost wallowing in its sensuous nature, to fully understand the linguistic splendour of the mélodies of the great French composers, like Debussy, Fauré and Duparc. Anything less sounds ridiculously pretentious, but if you allow yourself to be immersed in the sensuality of the words and the beauty of the musical setting, great rewards can be found. Beth Taylor and Michał Gajzler gave full throttle to their interpretation of these Debussy songs, and we, the audience, were the beneficiaries. Beth is very proficient in the French language, and her excellent diction and authentic inflexion allow the music to breathe, while Michał’s lightness of touch permits all sorts of colours to emerge from the piano.
Moving across the Rhine into Germany, and on into Austria, we heard three brilliant songs by Franz Schubert. The first, ‘Meeres Stille’ (Calm Sea), was a setting of Goethe, one of the composer’s most magical songs. Over a gentle, rippling accompaniment, the singer tells of a frighteningly calm sea with not a breath of air and not a wave on the surface. The words betray the worry of the calm before the storm, ‘Deathly stillness,’ ‘Fearful’. The oppressive weight of expectation hangs heavily over the scene, and yet nothing disturbs the serene vision. The performers created a motionless sense of waiting.
Schiller’s Hellish fantasy, ‘Gruppe aus dem Tartarus’, came next. Lost souls in Hell await the end that will never come, as they wander hopelessly, racked with pain, mouths open in silent terror, with hollow eyes. They ask each other if the end is yet nigh but are stopped in their tracks by the singer’s cry over C Minor chords of ‘Ewigkeit’ (Eternity), dismissing all hope of an end to their sufferings. It’s a song which I have sung throughout my career, a real low voice blockbuster, and Beth and Michał gave it all they had, and more. Brilliant! Their Schubert set ended with ‘Lied eines Schiffers an die Dioskuren’ (Boatman’s Song to the Dioscuri), a setting of Mayrhofer with a sea theme.
The serious mood was broken by ‘La Regatta Veneziana’, a sexy trio of songs about a girl’s power over a boat race of gondoliers, in which her support for one, Momolo, is enough to see him victorious. Beth Taylor brought all her operatic experience in Handel and Rossini to bear on these delightful trifles and made it clear from the outset that Momolo had nothing to fear from his rivals!
Finally we heard Elgar’s ‘Sea Pictures’, from 1899, a set of 5 songs for contralto, originally composed for Clara Butt, who sang them in Norwich on October 5th with orchestra, dressed as a mermaid, two days later in London, with Elgar at the piano, and again with piano, two weeks later, at Balmoral for Queen Victoria. I must confess that they are not my favourite Elgar works, although I like the lilting ‘Where Corals lie,’ but Beth and Michał made a good case for them, and they proved a splendid finale to a superb recital, drawing whoops and bravos from the adoring audience. An encore of another Hamilton Harty song, ‘The Sea Wrack,’ brought the recital to an end, but after only an hour’s break, Beth was back, in the Ledger Room this time, for a masterclass with some of the young singers at the Conservatoire. I only had time to stay for the first half, but it was clear that, as well as being a supreme singer, she is a natural and inspiring teacher too. I took part in many masterclasses in my youth, given by such luminaries as Hans Hotter, Elizabeth Schwarzkopf and Peter Pears, and have given them myself when Professor of Singing at St Andrews University. They are usually delivered by a famous singer towards the end of their career, as they pass on their knowledge to the younger generation. What was different here was that they were being taken by a young woman in the early years of her career, at her peak as a performer, but with special communication skills which allow her to show directly what she wants to the willing and receptive students. It must have been inspirational to the students to be taught by someone not much older than themselves. It was a fascinating experience, and the audience was thrilled.
You can still find the CD that Beth, Michał and I made in 2021, ‘Songs of Edinburgh’, with words by Sir Alexander McCall Smith and music by Tom Cunningham, on Birnam CD and Amazon. Beth’s own first solo CD is to be recorded soon.
