<<  -- 4 --  Malcolm Miller    EPISTLE OF LOVE

Earlier in the programme Tavener's Mini Song Cycle for Gina of 1984 displayed similar simplicity, the piano's sustained pedal note providing a high and low frame for the modally, and perhaps Celtic inflection of the melismatic melody which well suited Yeast's verses. Julius Drake's wonderfully colourful and responsive accompaniment throughout the evening was evidenced in the more richly textured Four Brahms songs, based on Serbian poetry, which launched the programme, projected by Patricia Rozario with resilient focus: The soulful Mädchenfluch Op 69/9, more dramatic and chromatic Mädchenlied Op 85/3, the lilting, playful Das Mädchen Op 95/1 and broader Vorschneller Schwur Op 60/4. Perhaps highlights of the evening were the two Russian cycles, ravishing in their colours and rich ensemble, Tchaikovsky's 4 Songs, of which the second, The Nightingale, is based on Pushkin's translation of a Serbian text, (though it was The Dream which drew the most ravishing, rapt delicacy from the duo) and the more full blooded romanticism of Rachmaninov's 6 Songs Op 38, of no apparent Serbian connection. Here both artists projected the progression through drama, pathos and poetry, to the impressionism of the final song 'A-oo!' with passion and conviction. The audience's warm applause was rewarded with a further beguiling Rachmaninov encore.