Britten, Ireland, Finzi and others: Roderick Williams, Crucible Studio, Sheffield 4/11/21

Britten, Ireland and others: settings of poetry by Thomas Hardy; Finzi: Song cycle: Before and After Summer: Roderick Williams, baritone, Christopher Glynn, piano; also for a few songs Gareth Brynmor John, part of the ‘Momentum: Our Future, Now’ initiative

I wondered why there was such assiduous queuing going on for this event – people started queuing for the doors to open a quarter of an hour beforehand….my answer came as the lights went down. For a song recital, even one entirely in English, it’s always good to be able to see the words on the programme – however at the Crucible Studio only the first few rows have sufficient light for you to be able to do that! Sure enough, all the early queuers I’d noticed had indeed grabbed the ‘limelight ‘ spots.

The Crucible Studio is really a wonderful place to experience a song recital – you’re so near to the singers, and they really (at least these singers) seem to like that sense of closeness (though the closeness might have issues associated with it in these pandemic-infested times, but nobody seemed that bothered about the issue).  It was a pity not to be able to read the words in the programme as none of the songs were known to me apart from those from Britten’s ‘Winter Words’ cycle. Roderick Williams (who gave an excellent introduction to the songs) was outstanding – the shadings he could give to his voice, the clarity of his enunciation and (something you only see close-up) the projection of personality (or acting, if you like) were all really first – class. His colleague Gareth Brynmor John if anything had a more beautiful-sounding voice but wasn’t able to match Williams’ shadings and projection. The second half was entirely taken up with the Finzi cycle ‘Before and After Summer’. I like Finzi in short doses but maybe 40 minutes of him is a bit much – though very sensitive to the words, the music is just a little too much the same…..On the whole, I enjoyed the first half more. Still, while an hour and a half of uncompromising Hardy gloom in prospect was uninviting – it’s to the credit of a varied set of composers and to the two singers that it felt neither unvarying nor depressing