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Kitty Whately’s parents, Kevin Whately and Madelaine Newton, joined the mezzo and pianist Joseph Middleton, reading poetry to illuminate the themes of the song groups.

Joyce DiDonato enchants the public of the Amsterdam Concertgebouw with a program of art songs and arias inspired by Venice.

Wednesday night saw the masterful rendition of British songs, by the legendary baritone at Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall, part of the ‘Echoes of a Mountain Song’ series. 

The choir tackle an ambitious, if overly long programme of Advent-themed works with mixed results.

Though Joyce DiDonato is an incredibly versatile artist, her performance at Carnegie Hall on Tuesday evening reaffirmed that she is, above all, one of the leading interpreters of Rossini today. 

It was hard to choose from the fascinating menu for The Composer’s Echo (the title for this Leeds Lieder Festival), which is described as “a feast of song from the great Western European tradition which fuses poetry and music” by the festival’s director, Jane Anthony.

Those few seconds of breathless silence at the end of a recital before thunderous applause are a rare thing, and a sure sign that the evening has been a success. Such was the case at the Wigmore Hall on Wednesday night after Roderick Williams and Gary Matthewman were called back to the stage for a second encore.

Venexia, Venise, Venedig: city of singing gondoliers, loved-up couples and pigeons. That was the picture painted last night at the sold-out recital by Joyce DiDonato and her accompanist David Zobel at the Wigmore Hall.