Intermezzo

Terfel and Keenlyside join forces at Wigmore Hall

Wigmore Hall's 2013- 2014 concert season opens on 7 September with a rare bari-summit. Bryn Terfel and Simon Keenlyside  join forces in what is likely to be the recital of the Wigmore season.

Other highlights include a five-concert survey of Bach’s keyboard works by András Schiff. Yo-Yo Ma comes to Wigmore Hall on 29 April 2014 to give his first recital there for more than 20 years. Matthias Goerne returns to Wigmore Hall after a three-year absence on 25 September for the first of two recitals in 2013/14, opening with songs by Schubert and moving on to music by Mahler and Shostakovich in January with Leif Ove Andsnes.

More details (but not as yet a full schedule) in the press release.

Tricky Finnish

Helena Juntunen / Eveliina Kytömäki - Wigmore Hall, 10 September 2012

While other venues continue to ignore the economic realities of recessionary Britain by raising ticket prices to the point where they end up having to give thousands of them away, Wigmore Hall is taking a different approach. This season's '10 for 10' scheme offers ten full length evening recitals by established artists at the bargain price of £10.

Coming up are the varied likes of Christianne Stotijn, Midori and the Arditti Quartet. But first on the list was the Finnish soprano Helena Juntunen, making her Wigmore debut with her regular accompanist Eveliina Kytömäki.

Kathleen Ferrier Awards 2012 - Natalya Romaniw wins

On Friday night, Natalya Romaniw won first prize in what is generally reckoned the most prestigious singing contest in the UK,  the annual Kathleen Ferrier Awards.

Dame Margaret Price remembered

Yesterday morning I was lucky enough to score a ticket to the memorial concert for Dame Margaret Price at Wigmore Hall.

This is the sort of thing the Wigmore does well, as the apposite selection of Mozart, Strauss, Schumann, Britten and Verdi proved.  Singers were mostly drawn from the younger generation: Sally Matthews, Leigh Woolf, Stephan Loges, Jonathan McGovern and Gerard Collett. But it was the veteran Dennis O’Neill who stole the show with Ah Fede ? Quando le sere al placido from Luisa Miller, his remarkably well-preserved tones ringing round the hall.

There were also fascinating tributes from Sir John Tooley and William Lyne, heads of the Royal Opera House and Wigmore Hall respectively during most of Dame Margaret's career. The dog-loving, Munich-based singer apparently once tackled John Major (then Prime Minister) at some official do on the quarantine laws with "You wouldn't lock your children up for six months!".

Above, Margaret Price sings Ave Maria from Verdi's Otello in Paris, 1976.

Piau!

Sandrine Piau / Roger Vignoles - Wigmore Hall, 11 April 2012

Sandrine Piau’s baroque credentials are longstanding and indisputable. She’s on shakier ground with mélodies and Lieder if this recital was anything to go by. Her default mode is an exquisite pearly-toned and almost instrumental sound, perfect for rippling through that tricky 18^th century coloratura. Art song requires more colours and more variety if the words are to communicate. Piau was able to darken her tone to some extent, but at the price of woolly vibrato, questionable pitching and pressure at volume. Shockingly opaque diction (worse, surprisingly, in French than German) didn’t help.

The high notes and soaring lines of Strauss’s Mädchenblumen suite found Piau at her exquisite white-toned best. A trio of Liszt songs also came over well, thanks not least to Roger Vignoles’ self-effacing accompaniment, though the operatic Die Loreley requires a singer of more melodramatic bent. Piau’s vocal mannerisms and gymnastic abilities sat well with Poulenc’s cock-eyed humour, less so with Chausson, Faure and Debussy, where a special kind of careless charm is all.

Incidentally, what has happened to the Wigmore audience? Barely a cough interrupted the music. Even a few gaps between songs passed in silence. Was  Piau really that spellbinding - or are all those pre-show announcements finally sinking in?

Fauré Le papillon et la fleur   Au bord de l’eau   Après un rêve   Le secret   Les berceaux
Liszt Der Fischerknabe   Oh! quand je dors   Die Loreley
Chausson Amour d’antan   Dans la forêt du charme et de l’enchantement   Les heures   Les papillons
Debussy Ariettes oubliées
Zemlinsky Liebe und Frühling   Das Rosenband   Frühlingslied
Strauss Mädchenblumen
Poulenc Deux poèmes de Guillaume Apollinaire   Deux poèmes de Louis Aragon
Encore: Fauré Clair de lune

Jonas Kaufmann returns to London in 2013

Save the date! Top secret sources suggest that Jonas Kaufmann will return to Wigmore Hall on 21 April 2013. 

Time to start saving for that top-level Friends membership which, once again, is likely to be the only way to guarantee a ticket.

Anna Caterina Antonacci at Wigmore Hall

Anna Caterina Antonacci / Donald Sulzen - Wigmore Hall, 5 December 2011

Cesti Intorno all’idol mio   Respighi Sopra un’ aria antica   Tosti Lasciami! Lascia ch'io respiri  L'alba separa dalla luce l'ombra  In van preghi  Che dici, o parola del Saggio?   Cilea Serenata  Nel ridestarmi  Non ti voglio amar  Hahn Sopra l'acqua indormenzada  La Barcheta  L'avertimento  La Biondina in gondoleta  Che pecà!   Refice Ombra di nube   Encore: Tosti Marechiare

The elusive Anna Caterina Antonacci spreads her bounty rather thinly these days. No wonder she still looks and sounds twenty years younger.  To many she's a goddess, but clearly not of the domestic type - her gold-encrusted black column gown was divine, but the matching shawl could have done with an iron.

Luca Pisaroni at Wigmore Hall

Luca Pisaroni / Wolfram Rieger - Wigmore Hall, 6 March 2011

rehearsal photo: Luca Pisaroni 

With his father-in-law, Thomas Hampson, sitting in the audience, Luca Pisaroni made a cheeky Wigmore Hall debut. "If in the end I have to take a wife, I know very well why I do it. I do it to pay my debts. I take her for the money," goes Schubert's Il modo di prender moglie. But the humour - well-received - loosened up audience and performers alike for an otherwise more weighty programme, pulled off with an immaculate blend of technique and taste. A shame the Hall was only half full, but it seems only the real aficionados turn out for these Sunday afternoon recitals.

The Bellini-ish L’incanto degli occhi and Il traditor deluso, a sort of cornetto-flavoured Erlkönig, completed Schubert's Italian set. With his agile bass-baritone and stage background allied to fine diction, Pisaroni could strike the right balance between their operatic influences and Schubert's own inimitable voice.

Rossini's Péchés de vieillesse cover the same sort of salon-opera territory in a rather different style, but again the question of balance is key. With La promessa, L'esule and L'orgia Pisaroni was attentive to text but preserved enough line to allow the music to flow.

A reason Liszt's songs aren't heard too often is the range of technical challenges they present to both singer and pianist. Yet there was such ease in the way Pisaroni and the unshowy Wolfram Rieger surmounted the difficulties you'd never guess they even existed. Pisaroni's German proved as good as his native Italian. He floated the higher passages beautifully, and only the longest lines defeated his reserves of wind. The violent, declamatory Vergiftet sind meine Lieder and the dramatic Vätergruft were highlights that proved his talents stretch way beyond the Mozart operas for which he's best known.

And as if the singing's not enough, he devotes a whole page of his website to his doggy friends.

Next question - why haven't Covent Garden booked him yet?

****UPDATE****

some nice photos from Japanese bloggers here and here ..... and here (with thanks to Kyoko) is how it all ended!

Jonas Kaufmann returns to Wigmore Hall

 
Yes, after the sold-outest concert of 2010, Jonas Kaufmann is bringing his Helmut back to Wigmore Hall on 27 May 2012 (queuing may start earlier).

Other 2011-12 Wigmore season highlights include all the Schubert song cycles from Christian Gerhaher, a rare visit from Natalie Dessay and a welcome return for Joyce DiDonato.

Expect official full season details some time in the next few days.

Iestyn Show

Iestyn Davies / Richard Egarr - Wigmore Hall, 12 January 2011

 
More pics here.
Ferrari Voglio di vita uscir     Kapsberger Figlio dormi     Frescobaldi Toccata Settima from Il secondo libro (solo harpsichord), Se l’aura spira     Ferrari Queste pungenti spine     Frescobaldi Capriccio sopra Ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la (solo harpsichord)      Cesti Selino’s Lament from Argia     Merula Canzonetta spirituale sopra alla nonna     Porpora Oh se fosse il mio core     Handel Suite No. 3 in D minor HWV428 (solo harpsichord)     Vivaldi Pianti, sospiri e dimandar mercede    
Encores - Handel Furibondo spira il vento from Partenope     Trad. She Moved Through the Fair

Was the photo taken before, during or after? The champagne flowed freely on Thursday night as Wigmore Hall's director John Gilhooly celebrated his 10th anniversary together with a very Wigmore set of guests. Amongst the pearls, mayoral chains and dog collars lurked TRH The Duke of Kent and Princess Alexandra, Lady Antonia Fraser, Ian McEwan and Sam West.

This was no gala event though but serious music-making at the very highest level. After a succession of musical disappointments in the last few weeks, most of which I've walked out of half way, it was a joy to return to the Wigmore for an evening so perfectly constructed and executed.

A free glass for everyone at the interval may have factored into the noticeably warmer applause of the second half. Perhaps Iestyn enjoyed a drop too. It was hard to tell. He never appears to suffer from the on-stage awkwardness that bothers so many singers. Whatever the repertoire, he performs with absolute security of voice and a confidence bordering on rock star swagger.

For the first half, he dusted off a handful of hauntingly beautiful obscurities from the backwaters of the early baroque. Hunched behind a music stand, he radiated intense concentration. The musing, improvisatory quality the songs needed to bring them alive was enhanced by the minimal but perfectly judged harpsichord accompaniment Richard Egarr sprinkled behind him.

Should a singer bother to commit to memory obscure repertoire performed just once? I think these underexposed gems are worth it, and Iestyn's light and supple countertenor makes a compelling advocate. As the career of Jordi Savall evidences, if you do something well enough, the audience will come.

When he returned after the interval, the music stand was gone and the communication straight away more extrovert and immediate.  We'd moved forward a century for a couple of surging, richly-ornamented Porpora and Vivaldi cantatas which showcased Iestyn's florid coloratura and Egarr's nimble fingers in a performance so exhilarating it earned football-style roars on top of thunderous applause.

For his final trick, he covered a song even better than Boyzone. The Irish (in John Gilhooly's honour) folk song She Moved Through the Fair made a simple and lovely end to a memorable evening.

Jonas Kaufmann - at Wigmore Hall - at last

Jonas Kaufmann / Helmut Deutsch - Die schöne Müllerin - Wigmore Hall, 31 October 2010

 

Jonas Kaufmann hasn't given a London recital for five years or so, part of the reason why this was the hottest Wigmore ticket in living memory. Even many Wigmore 'Friends' were disappointed. A box office assistant told me they could have sold out ten times. The queue of hopefuls waiting for returns stretched down Wigmore Street.

Inside, the lucky ticket holders included the royal presence of the Duke of Kent. Halloween ambience was provided by Angela Gheorghiu, disguised as herself.

showbusiness as usual at Wigmore Hall

Karita Mattila / Martin Katz;   Sarah Connolly / Eugene Asti;   Angelika Kirchschlager / Ian Bostridge / Julius Drake;   Artemis Quartet - Wigmore Hall, 10 - 14 September 2010

Wigmore Hall's 110th anniversary season is made of awesome, with recitals coming up from just about everyone you could possibly want to hear, including rare visitors like Jonas Kaufmann, Martha Argerich and Daniel Barenboim.

But the season's opening weekend was almost derailed by illness, with both Karita Mattila and Angelika Kirchschlager suffering from colds. Kirchschlager's was so bad she cancelled her scheduled appearance on the Saturday, eventually appearing - only partially recovered - on Monday.

you sang something?

Soile Isokoski / Allison Bell / Members of the London Philharmonic Orchestra / Vladimir Jurowski - Wigmore Hall, 10 June 2010

What a pity that the typically intelligent and stimulating programme Vladimir Jurowski had devised for his LPO chamber ensemble this evening wasn't matched by equally thoughtful planning for its execution.

The most effective item was the least ambitious, and perhaps not coincidentally the only one Jurowski didn't conduct. The Sextet from Strauss's Capriccio was played with great warmth and vitality by six of the LPO's top string players. 

A few more musicians had to squeeze on to the tiny Wigmore platform for Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire, and it was here that the problems began. Soloist Allison Bell, instead of standing up front, joined them in a line curving behind the conductor.

In other venues, or perhaps with a more forceful vocalist, this would have been a perfectly uncontroversial arrangement. But one of the reasons the Wigmore is such an ideal recital venue is that the acoustics favour the typical position of the singer at the front of the platform, creating a perfect balance automatically.  Stick them anywhere else and the Wigmore's democratic acoustic blends the voice seamlessly with whatever else is around. It would be an exaggeration to claim that Bell was inaudible, but she was certainly hard to hear, at times dipping beneath the level of the scant instrumentation. The problem was compounded by Bell's (quite correct) election for a true, speaking tone sprechstimme, meaning her voice rarely projected as far as pure singing would.

Soile Isokoski's rendition of Strauss's Four Last Songs fared even worse. For some reason, Isokoski was jammed up against the back wall. There were only thirteen musicians in front of her in James Ledger's new pared-down arrangement, but they were enough to drown her out almost totally. Christine Brewer in the vast barn of the Royal Albert Hall with a hundred instruments behind her came over more strongly.

Not only that but the wind instruments, a particularly strident piccolo especially, all but submerged the strings. Whether the Wigmore acoustic or the new arrangement was responsible, the effect was the same - the honeyed glow of Strauss's lush, string-heavy sound was all but eradicated.

Schoenberg's Kammersymphonie suffered from similar if not even more exaggerated balance problems, and, for the audience at front left, the additional merely visual obstacle of a grand piano (unused) blocking their view of the stage.

Maybe those at the back of the hall had better luck with the sound - it's sometimes the case - but in a venue noted for the quality of its acoustic really everyone should enjoy at least acceptable sound balance.

How ironic that the acoustic hotspot at centre front was occupied by the only musician who remained silent all night - the conductor.

This isn't the first time the cut-down London Philharmonic have failed to master the hall's acoustics, so why haven't lessons been learned?

Dmitri Hvorostovsky returns to Wigmore Hall

Dmitri Hvorostovsky / Ivari Ilja - Wigmore Hall, 11 June 2010

Tchaikovsky Again, as before, alone, The nightingale, The heroic deed, I opened the window, Don Juan’s serenade
Rachmaninov The dream, She is as lovely as the noon, Sing not to me, beautiful maiden, Oh no, I beg you, forsake me not
Tchaikovsky Reconciliation, A tear trembles, None but the lonely heart, The fearful moment
Rachmaninov When yesterday we met, In the silence of the secret night, He took all from me, Christ is risen
Encores:  Tchaikovsky Sred’ shumnogo bala (In the Midst of the Ball), Serenade,  Rachmaninov Ja byl u nei (I was with her) (I'm not 100% sure of these, so if you know better, please let me know)

It’s now twenty years since Dmitri Hvorostovsky made his Wigmore Hall debut. This recital, dedicated to the recently-deceased mezzo Irina Arkhipova, followed the same programme as that first one (according to his record company at least). But the mood was hardly celebratory. Bottom-of-the-vodka-bottle Russian melancholy underlay every one of his Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov songs.

YCAT 25th Anniversary Gala Concert Wigmore Hall

YCAT 25th Anniversary Gala Concert - Wigmore Hall, 24 April 2010

featuring Ian Bostridge (tenor), Adam Walker (flute), Huw Morgan (trumpet), Thomas Gould (violin), Philip Higham (cello), Alexander Romanovsky (piano), Llyr Williams (piano), Doric String Quartet, Heath String Quartet, Sacconi Quartet

The Young Concert Artists Trust is a sort of charitable management agency that provides talented young musicians at the start of their career with the kind of support that money can't buy - advice, guidance and opportunities to perform. The long list of beneficiaries includes Alison Balsom, Susan Gritton, Joanna MacGregor, Charles Hazlewood and more recently, Elizabeth Watts. For this 25th anniversary concert, two more, Ian Bostridge and Llyr Williams, were joined by a selection of the scheme's current artists.

a double helping of Matthias Goerne

Matthias Goerne / Helmut Deutsch - Wigmore Hall, 28 February and 2 March 2010

You never know quite what you're going to get in a Matthias Goerne recital. He can be great or unremarkable, surly or welcoming, engaged or indifferent - and he's not averse to switching round meticulously-planned programmes on the hoof. In these two, part of his ongoing 200-song Wigmore Hall Schubert marathon, a little bit of all of the above emerged.

Goerne's appeal has always lain in the rich velvety loveliness of his baritone as much as his artistry. But as soon as he began the first concert on Sunday night, it was obvious something was awry vocally. Whenever he pushed above the softest mezza voce, a tight, grainy, and frankly ugly sound was forced out. I assume tiredness or illness were to blame - the problem was gone by Tuesday.

Though I couldn't be a bigger Goerne fan, it was tough on the ears, and probably a blessing that he skipped one of the programmed songs. The only moment of real beauty was an extraordinarily slow Du bist die Ruh, spun out in such endlessly long-breathed, flowing lines that time seemed suspended. A slight waver as he crowned the stave on erhellt matched the limits of the voice perfectly to the climax of the song and proved that whatever his physical limitations on the night, his musical instincts were unerring.

On Tuesday his voice was back. Back too was his usual sheaf of crib notes, laid unashamedly on the piano's half-open lid. With sixteen songs on the programme, few of them in Goerne's (or indeed anyone's) regular repertoire, this much can be forgiven. What I found surprising though was how little he referred to them, and how much he simply made up as he went along. His substitutions were intelligent, not mere tongue slips - like schaut for the similar-meaning blickt. So it's possible even German speakers would have been none the wiser. In its own way, I suppose that's quite an impressive feat. But still odd. Simple memory lapses, or attempts to recraft the material in his own image?

Failing or not, it was easy to overlook in Goerne's otherwise beautifully-delivered programme. The sombre songs complemented his gifts for the reflective and introspective. The simplicity and sincerity of his Litanei auf das Fest aller Seelen made it the most affecting item of the evening. He rarely unleashed the full power of his voice, but when he did, in Der Zwerg, the air moved as people shot up in their seats. Even the meandering and overlong Viola and the saccharine Stolberg Stimme der Liebe were set out with care and love. 

The stalwart Helmut Deutsch proved the most attentive and least egotistical of accompanists, whether authoritative, as in the Der Tod und das Mädchen prelude, or simply framing the singing of the unpredictable Goerne.

28 February - Der Jüngling und der Tod D545, Das Lied im Grünen D917, Die Herbstnacht D404, Lied (Ins stille Land) D403, Der Herbstabend D405, Drang in die Ferne D770, An mein Herz D860, Der Wanderer D649, Über Wildemann D884, Klage D371, Am Bach im Frühling D361, An die Laute D905, Des Fräuleins Liebeslauschen D698, Augenlied D297, Du bist die Ruh D776, An die Musik D547, An eine Quelle D530, Der Sänger am Felsen D482, Abschied von der Harfe D406, Liedesend D473

2 March - An die untergehende Sonne D457, Der Tod und das Mädchen D531, Die Rose D745, Erinnerung D101, Litanei auf das Fest aller Seelen D343, Auf dem Wasser zu singen D774, Abendbilder D650, Nach einem Gewitter D561, Der Zwerg D771, Im Frühling D882, Stimme der Liebe D412, Die Blumensprache D519, Viola D786, An die Entfernte D765, Bei dir allein D866 No. 2, Ganymed D544

What's on in London in March

As usual, there's so much going on in London next month that the sooner someone invents a Sky+ for live events the better.

David Daniels at Wigmore Hall

David Daniels / Martin Katz - Wigmore Hall, 21 February 2010

Brahms Auf dem See, Ständchen, Nicht mehr zu dir zu gehen, Mein Mädel hat einen Rosenmund, O wüsst ich doch den Weg zurück     Peri Gioite al canto mio     Durante Danza, danza, fanciulla gentile     Caccini Amarilli mia bella      Frescobaldi Così mi disprezzate      Hahn A Chloris, Quand je fus pris au pavillon, Chanson au bord de la fontaine, Paysage    Handel Cara sposa from Rinaldo, Perfido! di a quell'empio tiranno from Radamisto     Quilter Music, when soft voices die    Vaughan Williams Linden Lea    Elgar Where corals lie    Howells King David     Finzi It was a lover and his lass
Encores: Strauss Zueignung, Lotti Pur dicesti o bocca bella, Gounod L'absent

An hour of non-stop baroquery can render even the loveliest of countertenor voices yawnsome.  So David Daniels deserves credit for the variety of his Wigmore Hall programme, which travelled from 16th century Florence to 20th century England via France and Germany, taking in his beloved Handel on the way.

That said, he was at his most effective in the earlier music. Arias from Rinaldo and Radamisto had all the dramatic flair of full-scale opera, where, despite any number of fine recitals, he's always at his best. His arie antiche seemed far more consequential than Joyce DiDonato's (partially overlapping) selection last month. The breathtaking coloratura of Danza, danza, fanciulla gentile was far more than display for its own sake, and the suspended line of Amarilli mia bella hovered in unearthly beauty.

Hahn's cod-Bach À Chloris was a predictably fine match for Daniels' baroque sensibilities. But the exquisite beauty of his voice equally accomodates the more perfumed end of Hahn's repertoire, like the rapturous Paysage, for which loveliness of tone is prerequisite.

An English song selection took in Quilter, Vaughan Williams, Elgar, Finzi and appropriately enough, Howells' King David, a tenderly drawn portrait of melancholy. Daniels' impressionistic delivery is a world away from fiercely inhabited subjectivity of Alice Coote's all-English programme last week (which sadly I didn't have time to write up), but it has its own charm even if it doesn't dig quite as deep.

The opening Brahms selection was less convincing. Daniels' romantic sensibilities, the warm tone and rich vibrato, suggest this repertoire is not out of his reach. But the way he physicalises notes more than words betrays an essentially musical, rather than verbal approach. He uses his voice like an instrument, communicating with carefully shaped and moulded tone. The very musicality of his singing in a way obstructs the text, which is foremost in these songs.  Although his diction was near-faultless, the individual words themselves were sacrificed to the more abstract expressiveness of line and phrasing. Here as elsewhere, Martin Katz's choppy, fragmented phrasing seemed to work against Daniels' more lyrical tendencies.

An ecstatic reception (which began before he'd even sung a note) was rewarded with three encores, the most extraordinary of which was Zueignung - I'm still not sure whether it was brilliant or terrible.

 

Operastar to Popstar - Toby Spence tackles Jacques Brel

Scottish Ensemble / Toby Spence - Wigmore Hall, 7 February 2010 

Satie Gnossienne No. 1 Debussy (arr. Morton) Serenade for the Doll, The Little Shepherd, Jimbo's Lullaby, Golliwogg's Cake-Walk from 'Children's Corner'     Satie Gnossienne No. 3     Schwertsik Adieu Satie Brel J'arrive, Amsterdam, Ces gens-là, Fernand, Jef, Vesoul, Au suivant, Les bourgeois, La valse à mille temps   Encore: Brel La chanson des vieux amants

Popstar to Operastar demonstrates how tough it is for even the most successful of entertainers to switch genres. Lest anyone imagine that's because opera is 'hard' and pop is 'easy', Toby Spence proved in this patchy recital of Jacques Brel favourites that even an abundance of operatic skill is not enough to guarantee success when the the musical goalposts are moved.

Toby Spence seems to love Brel's music passionately. It's a shame he couldn't commit it all to heart though. True, there were a lot of words to learn, but it was a stretch to believe them when they were often read from a music stand. In Schubert, this wouldn't be an issue, but what Brel's songs demand most of all - above technical accuracy, native idiom or anything else - is conviction. Like a marriage proposal or a hostage statement, it's simply impossible to believe in when it's read from the page.

Spence doesn't have a flawless native accent, but I don't find that a necessity for this material. Clear diction however is vital. Perhaps an instinctive habit of his training, Spence favoured the smooth musical line over crisply-enunciated text. I hadn't expected le style, but I had at least hoped for les paroles. For the rapid patter of La valse à mille temps, it was less of a concern, but for the detailed narrative of Les bourgeois it was a serious drawback. Perhaps Brel's more lyrical, less declamatory songs like Litanies pour un retour or Je ne sais pas might have proved a better match for Spence's talents than the more well-known and verbally demanding ones that ended up on the programme.

A lot of the material sat in Spence's growly lower reaches - surely these songs are not too precious to transpose? Only Amsterdam was entirely in the more comfortable part of his range, and it was by far his most musically effective selection.

Reservations aside, Spence's deep love for Brel's music came across clearly in the songs themselves and his spoken introduction to each one. But as the Popstar to Operastar candidates are finding, enthusiasm only goes so far - training, practice and experience are required to complete the picture. Jacques Brel himself spent many nights honing his techniques in Brussels nightclubs before launching himself to success in Paris. For a first bash at singing Brel in public, Spence didn't do too badly, but he's got a long way to go.

No complaints about the wonderful idiomatic arrangements from the fourteen musicians of the Scottish Ensemble - including expert accordionist Ian Watson - which framed the songs beautifully. A first half filled with Satie, Debussy and Kurt Schwertsik's playful Satie tribute, Adieu Satie was an undemanding but delightful complement.

fantastic line up announced for Wigmore Hall 2010/11

An even-starrier-than-usual selection of visitors will help Wigmore Hall celebrate its 110th anniversary next year.

The roll call, announced today, includes Daniel Barenboim, Martha Argerich and Stephen Kovacevich, Cecilia Bartoli, Diana Damrau, Jonas Kaufmann, Jordi Savall and Hespèrion XXI, András Schiff, Philippe Jaroussky, Maria João Pires, Andreas Scholl, the Takács Quartet, Thomas Hampson, Dame Mitsuko Uchida, Susan Graham, Stephen Hough, Steven Isserlis, Joshua Bell and Leif Ove Andsnes.

Karita Mattila will open the season in September 2010, and Alfred Brendel will present a lecture-recital series.

The season is split into three separate periods, September – December, January – March and April – July, with booking for each starting around three months beforehand.

For £10 you can join the mailing list, which gives booking priority over the general public, or for more money and greater priority, you can join the Friends. As the Hall holds only around 500, this can be a distinct advantage in getting tickets for the more popular concerts.