Scandinavian Songs at the Wigmore Hall

A fully produced performance of Brahms' Die schӧne Magelone in Philadelphia, complete with on-stage narrator and bespoke drawings, proved less than the sum of its parts.

Fauré was the finest of French songwriters. Stéphane Degout and Véronique Gens shine in a full-length evening in a packed Wigmore Hall. 

Heinrich Heine settings by Schumann and Schubert are counter-balanced by Duparc and Cole Porter in a Temple Song recital reflecting on night and day.

Tenor Nicky Spence and mezzo Václava Krejčí Housková thrill with a theatrical take on Janáček's The Diary of One Who Disappeared with pianist Julius Drake. 

Pianist Julius Drake and his two singers probe the audience’s collective soul with the depth of their Mahler performances. 

A young mezzo and a seasoned pianist performed a rendition of Winterreise that sounded very fresh indeed.