Proms Chamber Music 8: 5.09.16 - Songs by Purcell, Mendelssohn and Quilter

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

13:00 Monday 5 Sep 2016
Cadogan Hall

Carolyn Sampson (soprano)
Iestyn Davies (countertenor)
Joseph Middleton (piano)

Two cherished British singers round off 2016's Proms Chamber Music series with a joint recital at Cadogan Hall, celebrating English song with an extended stopover in Germany for songs and duets by Felix Mendelssohn.

Either side, Carolyn Sampson, Iestyn Davies and Joseph Middleton present Benjamin Britten's touching 'realisations' of songs by the composer's theatrical predecessor Henry Purcell, and works by the doyen of English song, Roger Quilter.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/programmes/schedules/2016/08/29

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Why don't they organise themselves and decide what they're going to sing, rather than keeping it a big cliquey secret?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Still no hint of a list of items to be performed.

[doversoul1]

A very elegant song recital. I’d have preferred unarranged Purcell with the harpsichord accompaniment but still, this is an enjoyable lunchtime concert.

[bluestateprommer]

I've archived this PCM program on the Forum Calendar entry, but here it is for convenience (or showing off), with what I remember as to who sang what (I might need to double-check this later):

(A) Purcell (arranged/'realised' by Britten):
1. 'Sound the trumpet' (duet; first performance at The Proms)
2. 'Lost is my quiet' (ID)
3. Oedipus, King of Thebes: 'Music for a while' (ID)
4. 'If music be the food of love' (CS)
5. The Maid's Last Prayer, or Any Rather than Fail: 'No, resistance is but vain' (duet; first performance at The Proms)
6. Oroonoko: 'Celemene, pray tell me' (duet; first performance at The Proms)

(B) Felix Mendelssohn:
1. 'Ich wollt' meine Lieb' ergoss sich', op. 63, no. 1 (duet)
2. Scheidend, op. 9, no. 6 (ID; first performance at The Proms)
3. 'Neue Liebe', op. 19a, no. 4 (CS)
4. Three Duets, op. 77 (duet; first performance at The Proms)

(C) Roger Quilter:
1. 'It was a lover and his lass', op. 23, no. 3 (duet)
2. 'Music, when soft voices die', op. 25, no. 5 (ID)
3. 'Drink to me only with thine eyes' (CS)
4. Love's Philosophy, op. 3, no. 1 (CS)
5. Rosme: 'Love Calls Through the Summer Night' (duet; first performance at The Proms)

Encore:
Roger Quilter: 'Weep you no more, sad fountains' (duet)

This was a tremendously well performed and entertaining PCM to close out this year's series. Maybe one tiny slip of phrase from Joseph Middleton, but nothing to disrupt the overall quality. One cute bit of stage entertainment was at the end of 'Celememe, pray tell me', when CS maneuvered herself in front of ID, to block him from view of the audience, given the very unsubtle subtext of the song. Yes, the audience did applaud after each song, even in the 3 songs of the Mendelssohn Three Duets, but forgivable under the circumstances. More surprisingly, given that this PCM sold out (as did all the others), there were scattered empty seats, unless those people simply didn't show up after paying for the seats. The day queue sections seemed quite full, though. Petroc was on good form, with only one tiny word slip that I thought I noticed, but again, quite forgivable in the moment, and he gets points for one good zinger in saying that Mendelssohn is "one of the few composers whose songs without words are more famous than his songs with words".