Kate Royal’s recital in the beautiful but (on Tuesday) airless Music Room was interesting and different.
Thirty widely ranging songs were listed in four groups Waiting, The Meeting, The Wedding and Betrayal but were sung without a pause, except for the interval. This avoided bittiness (many of the songs were very short) and achieved continuity, but was quite a challenge for the audience let alone the singer and her supremely competent accompanist, Malcolm Martineau.
The evening achieved its unity through the poetry rather than the music so there were unexpected musical juxtapositions, some illuminating but others disconcerting, particularly with the mix of the French Chanson and German Lieder. Kate Royal certainly had the mental and linguistic ability to move from one cultural tradition to another, but her voice didn’t find it so easy to make these transitions. There were plenty of hits but some misses, with French songs such as the Duparc and Fauré clear winners on the night, perhaps because they were evocative of a warm summer’s evening.
But it was the American songs by Copland and Amy Beach where the voice blossomed and she seemed most at home. She ceased striving for effect but let her beautiful singing and the music weave their magic on her audience.
The recital finished with the repetition of the opening song, Waitin’, by another American, William Bolcom.
Danny Boy, movingly sung, was the suitable encore to end this stimulating evening.
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