ALLAN CLAYTON, STEPHANIE WAKE-EDWARDS & JAMES BAILLIEU (Wigmore Hall)*****

 

By Arran

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjsRo3Az1M0

Available until: It doesn’t say but I think the concerts are available for a month so maybe 21^st November 2020.

This is a really good concert which I enjoyed a lot. I was stressed before the concert but it made me feel better.

Allan Clayton sang most of the concert but Stephanie Wake-Edwards who is a Jette Parker Young Artist at the Royal Opera House sang three songs. James Baillieu accompanied them both. It is quite an unusual recital because there aren’t many groups of the songs by the same composer but Mr Clayton’s songs did have a connection because they either had a connection to Benjamin Britten, John Donne or both of them. It’s really interesting hearing songs that are grouped together for different reasons and seeing the connections between them.

Mr Clayton opened the recital with four songs from the 1600s - A Hymn on Divine Musick by William Croft, Lord! I have sinned and Will thou forgive that sin by Pelham Humphrey, and A Divine Hymn by Jeremiah Clarke. They were all realised by Benjamin Britten and the third song was set to a John Donne poem. The first song was all about the beauty of music and Mr Clayton’s singing shows how beautiful music can be. The next two songs are about sins and they are sad and I thought Mr Clayton expressed the emotions really well. The last song in the set has a range of emotion in it but it’s mostly a positive song and it’s really nice to listen to. Mr Baillieu is a really sensitive accompanist.

The next few songs are from 3 centuries later and they have no accompaniment, it was just Mr Clayton. The words are by John Donne and the setting by Ivy Priaulz Rainier was commissioned by Benjamin Britten’s boyfriend Peter Pears. These songs are really compelling, they make you listen and think about the words. They are written in prose and you can hear that in the music but I think the words are still very poetic.

The next 3 songs are sung by Ms Wake-Edwards. She started off with Unbewegte laue Luft by Brahms and it was like not just every word but every syllable means something. Her voice has different colours and Mr Baillieu follows that with his accompaniment. Her next song is Nun she’ ich wohl from Kindertotenlieder by Mahler. It is very emotional and Ms Wake-Edwards acts the emotions really well. There are some low notes in the song which she sings in a really unexpected and beautiful way. Her last song is Journey’s End by Frank Bridge which is really sad and yearning. I would love to see Ms Wake-Edwards do a full recital on her own.

Mr Clayton ends the recital with The Holy Sonnets of John Donne which are set by Benjamin Britten and had their premiere at the Wigmore Hall. I thought he was brilliant. The songs are all so different, all with different emotions and it’s like you’re thrown from one to another and (if you’re like me and you haven’t heard the song cycle before) you never know what’s coming next. Mr Clayton changes his voice to suit the different songs, he’s very versatile. They are sad songs but some of them have quite a gentle sadness, some have quite a sharp sadness and then there’s Batter My Heart which really does batter you. I really like VI and VII a lot because it’s almost like there’s hope things won’t be so bad but then VIII is another hard hitting one and there’s a really powerful ending.

Mr Clayton and Ms Wake-Edwards sang the encore together. I won’t say what it is but it’s a song you hear a lot in different situations and it often doesn’t sound that good but then you hear an arrangement like this with two really good singers and a really good pianist and you realise it’s actually a really beautiful song.