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From Beethoven's “Ghost” Piano Trio to Schumann’s song cycle, Frauenliebe und -leben, an eclectic programme at the Martha Argerich Festival. 

With Malcolm Martineau, the Latvian mezzo delivered poise and polish and transcendent Rückert Lieder. 

A packed recital given by mezzo-soprano Sarah Connolly at Brighton Festival.   

First the beauty, then the words at a Renée Fleming Carnegie Hall Song Recital.

Elina Garanča can always be counted on for a coolly polished performance. Her silvery mezzo is beautiful, even throughout her range, and impeccably on pitch. She is musically tasteful, and her sound has grown in recent years. But something often seems to be missing. While she’s too accomplished to call bland, her performances rarely show evidence of a beating heart.

Marian Anderson, the famed African-American contralto, once remarked of Kathleen Ferrier, “My God, what a voice – and what a face!” This concert was a Centenary Celebration of Ferrier’s art at the Wigmore Hall, and I reflected (not for the first time) how aptly Anderson’s words could also apply to Alice Coote, the evening’s distinguished soloist.

On Sunday afternoon the most recent recipient of the prestigious Kathleen Ferrier Award, Kitty Whately, was welcomed to the Clothworkers’ Hall by Leeds Lieder, an organisation founded in the hope of introducing art song to a new audience.