Contrasts are fine but they don’t always work: in a programme with a strongly Germanic flavour John Storgårds and the BBC Philharmonic stretch the boundaries.
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.
