Schwanengesang at Brighton Dome Concert Hall, May 17

RETURNING to Brighton Dome Concert Hall for the first evening concert of 2021’s Brighton Festival didn’t feel right at first.

Where normally one would expect to bump into friends and acquaintances in a hive of activity at the bar, we were ushered instead through an efficient, socially distanced one way-system and unsettling quiet.

In the Concert Hall however, a stellar concert of lied (German song) soon saw the eeriness dissipate.

Renowned British baritone Roderick Williams OBE set the scene for the ‘Schwanengesang’ concert (Schubert’s ‘Swan Song’ cycle), explaining that the programme was presented as part of Barbara Hannigan’s ‘Momentum’ initiative, which sees leading artists joined by younger talent to support them in the first stage of their career in these difficult times for classical musicians.

Contrary to the website copy, Williams was keen to point out that these singers were not "emerging" but rather “had emerged”, and this certainly rang true on stage.

The programme saw three singers: Williams himself, soprano Ella Taylor, and baritone Themba Mvula, accompanied in the first half by Ella O’Neill on piano and by Ana Manastireanu in the second.

Mvula had lovely, strong, German diction and one of the most joyous moments of the evening came from some jovial singing and buoyant playing with Manastireanu.

Taylor meanwhile had a beautifully rounded tone and some irresistible vibrato, although she sounded a little too vowelly and indiscernible at times, for this reviewer.

Ana Manastireanu’s accompaniment stood out as more dramatic, plaintive and attention grabbing, but Ella O’Neill’s work was still gorgeous, fluid and dynamic.

Roderick Williams’ beautiful baritone singing, meanwhile, made for a fantastic first indoor concert at Brighton Dome, its first in over six months.

It veered wonderfully between belting and bold, to quiet, distilled, and moving.

Brighton Festival has returned in fine voice.

****

Joe Fuller