Work: Fiançailles pour rire, FP 101

Joseph Middleton and Carolyn Sampson were perfectly matched in Fleurs, the final concert of Leeds Lieder's Day of Song at The Venue in Leeds.

Susan Graham is the mezzo representative of the generation of American singers, including Barbara Bonney, Renée Fleming, Dawn Upshaw and Sylvia McNair, who rose to prominence in the mid to late 1980s and distinguished themselves internationally with their superlative techniques, gorgeous lyric instruments, and impeccable professionalism.

How tempting it can be for the aficionado of German Lieder to stay at home and never to go to concerts. He (yes, it is normally a he rather than a she) can retreat into his LP and CD collection, and convince himself that the great recordings of a Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau or an Elisabeth Schwarzkopf cannot be surpassed.