Music in the Round Autumn Series 2008
Elizabeth Watts and Phillip Thomas
I knew Liz Watts from the time I was studying for my Masters degree at Sheffield University. Then, it was a commonly held belief that Liz would go on to great things. I watched her perform in the Cardiff Singer of the World 2007 Competition, for which she went on to win the Rosenblatt Song Prize, and have read about her in the local press and heard her on the radio. So, this was an opportunity not to be missed - to catch her giving a recital in my home city of Sheffield.
She started the evening with Mozart, and I immediately recalled the experience of hearing her rich tonal qualities, supported by an immaculate technique, emanating from practice rooms all those years ago. She has evidently been nurturing and maintaining her voice well, as there is little sign of strain. Her lower register is more secure and expressive now, and the top of her range as competent as ever it was - with the addition of an increased finesse that must have developed through all the experience she has gained as a result of her recent successes. One of her vocal characteristics is her ability to maintain an even tonal quality across her registers - something that suggests a rigorous application of technique through training.
There were seven songs in the Mozart group, some familiar, some less so. The more familiar being the 'Als Luise' and 'Abendempfindung' with one composed in Italian in between - 'Ridente la Calma' . In fact, with the addition of the French 'Dans un Bois Solitaire' Liz was opening her recital almost exactly as Elizabeth Schwarzkopf did at the start of her Carnegie Hall recital of 1956. Sandwiching the Italian in between is a treat for the voice at the beginning of a recital - the open vowels allow the voice some help in warming up. Technically Liz was faultless, I only felt a slight lack of variation of tone, and a slight over-forcing in the middle range in pursuit of volume.
Moving on to Liszt, I was rapt, particularly by the dream quality of 'Oh! Quand je dors'. Now Liz was really evoking something special and this repertoire suits her particularly well. The 'theme' of the evening was developing nicely too. Romantic, metaphysical, pastoral and nostaligic with an even scattering of flowers, particularly violets and lilacs and rowing boats! This satisfied our unconscious.
Liz's professional development was evident in her command of the Rachmaninov in Russian to include a Pushkin setting 'Ne poj, krasavica, pri mne'. Liz introduced this song with reference to her own nostalgia for Sheffield! Flattery will get her a return invitation, I hope.
Moving on chronologically to Hahn, and entertaining us with a reminder of the connection of 'A Chloris' with the 'Hamlet' cigar adverts, we were again treated to lilacs and a setting of Hugo's 'Reverie' - excellent for a contrast in pace. But for me the real treat came with the final Robert Louis Stevenson settings. I thought it a good homecoming that she finished in English and for me these settings were very evocative as I remember reading the poems as a child, some over and over. The word painting in 'The Swing' was extremely effective, carried off brilliantly by Phillip Thomas in the accompaniment. I hadn't heard these pieces before and will now seek them out.
The little bit of witty banter between Liz and Phillip was both engaging and reassuring, in that Liz is still very much the infectiously warm and eager young woman I knew before her rise to fame. Liz has made such a secure start to her singing career that there is great capacity for development in her expressive and interpretive abilities and I wish her every success and happiness in her forthcoming career.
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