The Call

The response to our Snape Maltings concerts has been overwhelming and now to have the chance to be the first organisation to launch the Momentum initiative for rising performers is an additional thrill. Britten and Pears established their young artists’ programme almost 50 years ago and supporting and mentoring young musicians remains a cornerstone of our work. (Roger Wright, Britten Pears Arts)

This recital emerges from the ‘Momemtum’ initiative, an idea devised in lockdown by Barbara Hannigan in which established artists support emerging musical talent. Here, pianist Malcolm Martineau joins six young singers in a recital of favourites. We start energetically with Schubert’s jolly ‘Fischerweise’ … Soprano Madison Nonoa sounds lovely … Tenor Laurence Kilby sounds startlingly bright and extrovert in Robert Schumann’s yearning ‘Mein schöner Stern’, while baritone Dominic Sedgwick depicts a surprisingly robust Aeolian harp in Brahms’s ‘An eine Aeolsharfe’. The exuberant songs work far better. Mezzo-soprano Martha Jones is charming in ‘Aufträge’ and exceptional in Debussy’s ‘La flûte de Pan’, Kilsby fun in Poulenc’s ‘Fêtes galantes’. Mezzo-soprano Angharad Lyddon can sound a little heavy, but her rich timbre glows in Meirion Williams’s memorable, late-Romantic ‘Gwynfyd’. English songs inspire greater depth and variety. Jones again impresses with her imagination and vulnerability in Britten’s arrangement of ‘Early one morning’ and Howells’s ‘King David’. Rachmaninov’s luscious ‘In the Silent Night’ sung by baritoneAlex Otterburn feels a touch stranded after Britten’s austere arrangements … Martineau at the piano is completely at home in this series of crowd pleasers, his fingers alternately flying over and caressing the keys with consulate grace and imagination (BBC Music)